Book One: An Unexpected Princess
by RussetDivinity
Summary: Scorpius Malfoy is at his first year at Hogwarts but can't seem to find a way to fit in, since everyone seems all too aware of who his father is. However, when a strange girl appears in his Charms class, he learns that his future doesn't have to be determined by what his family did all those years ago.
1. King's Cross

It was the first of September, and King's Cross was packed with students and their families. Students hugged their parents, teased their younger siblings, and ran around, looking for their friends. It was the sort of chaos that made older witches and wizards think fondly of Hogwarts and miss the days when they tried to sneak out to the lake in the middle of the night or get to the kitchens and walk out with their arms full of food.

In the middle of it all stood the Malfoy family: Draco, Astoria, and Scorpius. They were the one spot of quiet in all the excitement, and it only made Scorpius feel more out of place. He had been thrilled when an owl came by to deliver his letter, though it wasn't entirely unexpected. He was a pureblood, after all, and there was no chance he would have ended up staying at home. Still, as the days got closer and closer to September first, the excitement had turned to nervousness, and the ride in his father's Ministry car had been silent. Not even his mother had spoken, no doubt knowing that neither her husband nor her son would respond.

"I suppose this is it," Draco said, and he ran a hand through Scorpius's hair. "Are you ready?"

He wasn't, but he nodded. He didn't want to disappoint either of his parents by backing out now, especially since they had spent so much on his school supplies, making sure he had the absolute best of everything. His mother gave him one last hug, and he clung to her for a bit longer than he had planned. When she let him go, he saw a sad smile on her face.

"We'll write to you every week," she said.

"I'll write back," he promised. They had made sure he had plenty of parchment and ink, and several quills. "Good-bye."

"Good-bye," his mother said, releasing his shoulders and handing him his trunk and Apollo's cage. It was heavy, but he could manage, at least until he found a compartment. He was small and rather slight, but stronger than he looked.

"Make us proud," his father said, and then Scorpius slipped into the crowd and began working his way to the train.

At least, he tried to slip into the crowd, but it parted slightly as he walked through it, and he didn't have to look to know that people were staring at him and whispering. He tried to ignore them, but heat rose up his neck and into his cheeks, and he knew that his pale skin would only make his blush more obvious.

"Is that the Malfoy boy?"

"My God, he looks just like his father!"

"Ten Galleons says he'll turn out just like Draco."

"No bet."

"Haven't got ten, huh? What about seven?"

"Eight, and I'll buy your drinks at the Leaky Cauldron for a week."

"Done."

Scorpius passed by a group of people who he knew from glancing at issues of _The Daily Prophet _that his father had finished with: the Potters and Weasleys. The four parents – Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione – were there, along with five children, two of whom looked to be about his age. One was some years older, and the other two were a couple years younger and eagerly talking about where they might be sorted. Scorpius did his best to avoid eye contact, but he couldn't avoid the glance of the oldest boy, who gave him something between a glare and a smirk before turning back to his parents. Scorpius picked up his pace and made it onto the train just as the majority of people were starting to board.

It wasn't too hard to get an empty compartment, and Scorpius stood on one of the seats to haul his trunk onto the rack above them. His father had said that someone would come to pick it up and transport all his things to the dormitory, so he didn't have to worry about that. He didn't even have to worry about getting Apollo to the Owlery, though he did open the cage and allow his owl to step out and stretch his wings.

"I know," he murmured, scratching the bird's feathers gently. "Don't worry. Soon you'll be with a bunch of other owls, and I'll be with other wizards. Everything's going to work out."

Apollo apparently believed him, for he spread his wings and hooted softly.

Just then, the compartment door opened, and Scorpius saw the oldest Potter boy looking in on him. He had messy black hair and bright brown eyes, and he looked just about to step inside when he spotted Scorpius and stepped back.

"Come on, Rose, Al. Let's keep looking. This compartment's already taken."

The Potter boy started off down the hall, followed by his cousin and younger brother. Scorpius only caught a glimpse of them as they walked by, of two kids his own age, one with messy black hair and the other with bright red curls and already in her robe. With a sigh, he settled back in his seat and stared out the window and Apollo explored the compartment before returning to his cage. When the train started, Scorpius closed the cage door and latched it, not bothering to watch King's Cross slide away into the distance.

Several times for the next hour, the same thing happened. The compartment door would open and someone would look in, catch sight of him, and move on. By the fifth time, it wasn't even disappointing, just expected. Scorpius didn't mind all that much; it gave him time to think, and though he'd had plenty of that in the car ride to the station, there were still some things he just couldn't get out of his head.

His father was one of them. While Draco Malfoy had never been a stern father, he had never been particularly loving, either. Most of the affection in the house came from Astoria, but even that sometimes seemed muted when compared to his father. Scorpius didn't know exactly what it was that made his father seem so cold, but he had picked up a few clues, and he knew that his father had done something in his youth that he regretted immensely. Since then, he had done all sorts of things to try to make up for it, including becoming a Healer, but it never seemed to be enough. It was like there was a shadow hanging over him, and Scorpius couldn't help feeling like part of the shadow had landed on him as well.

The compartment opened again, but this time Scorpius didn't bother looking up. What would be the point? He would only see someone leaving because no one wanted to share a compartment with the Malfoy boy. When the door slid closed, he sighed again and leaned his elbow against the window. The countryside of England was lovely, but he didn't much have the heart to enjoy it.

He was jolted from his reverie by a trunk clanging onto the rack, and when he looked up, he saw a tall girl with tan skin, black hair, and bright blue eyes dropping onto the seat across from him. "Hi," she said. "It's all right if I sit here? No one else was, so I was going to ask, but you looked really interested in the view, so I figured you wouldn't mind all that much. I mean, it's not like you were saving it for someone, right?"

"I wasn't," he said. "Why do you want to sit there?"

"Because it's the closest thing to an empty compartment on the train," she said. "Everywhere else everyone's already friends, and I felt really awkward knocking on doors and asking if I could come in. I figured, since you're the only one here, you wouldn't mind if I took up a little space."

Scorpius had thought she was a second or third-year, but now he realized that she might just be a very tall first-year. "I don't mind," he said.

"Great! I'm Ruby. Ruby Miller." She held out her hand, and he shook it.

"Scorpius Malfoy."

"Scorpius?" Her eyes widened. "That's a weird name."

"It's a wizarding name," he said, not sure why he felt so defensive. "Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy."

"That's so cool!" Ruby said, grinning. "Scorpius means scorpion, Hyperion's one of the Titans and probably the one for the sun, and Malfoy… I think that means bad faith."

The one good thing in there was a sun Titan, but even that sounded a bit monstrous. No wonder people avoided him. He was a scorpion of bad faith who could do something to the sun. Maybe his life would have been better if his father had given him a Muggle name, like Zachary or Egbert. Egbert sounded embarrassing and old-fashioned but at least it didn't mean scorpion.

"It's a lot more interesting than my name," Ruby went on. "Ruby Iris Miller. I mean, it's pretty, but the meaning's right there. A gemstone, a flower, and my ancestors owned a flour mill. Your name's amazing."

"Thanks," he muttered.

"So, is this your first year, too?"

That clinched it, as though her being surprised as his name hadn't. "Yeah. I'm probably going to end up in Slytherin." It was his father's house, and for all he knew, it was the reason he had done whatever he did that made him so regretful. After all, everyone knew that any wizard who went into Slytherin ended up being bad.

"Slytherin," Ruby said. "I've heard people talking about that, but I don't get what it means. What's a Slytherin?"

She was probably a Muggle not to know about that and not to flinch away from his name. Scorpius felt a bit colder toward her, but then, she was the only person so far who had talked to him rather than just about him. "There are houses at Hogwarts that students get sorted into. There's Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. You get into them depending on your skills and personality."

"And what's wrong with Slytherin?"

"It's where all the Death Eaters went," Scorpius muttered. He didn't want to explain further, but as he expected, Ruby kept asking questions.

"What's a Death Eater?"

"They were…" She would learn about all of this somehow, if not from History of Magic, then certainly from her peers and professors. "They were evil wizards who tried to take over Britain."

Ruby tilted her head, peering at him. Her eyes were very blue and very piercing. "You don't seem all that evil, just kind of quiet. I'm sure you'll end up in whatever house is for the nice kids. I don't really see why they have a house for evil people at all, unless the wizard world is a lot different from the regular one."

The nice kids. Hufflepuff. That would be an embarrassment to write home about. His best bet was probably to end up in Ravenclaw, but he was sure that Slytherin was where he would go. "You'll probably be a Ravenclaw," he said. "They're all really smart. Gryffindors are brave, and Hufflepuffs are hard workers."

"I'm sure you'll end up somewhere great," Ruby said. "Hey, if we're not in the same house, we can still be friends, right?"

"I think so," he said. "We might not see each other very often, though. Houses are like families."

"Well, we'll just sneak away from our families. It'll be like Romeo and Juliet, but with a happy ending!" On seeing Scorpius's blank look, Ruby laughed. "I'll explain later."

"It's a long train ride," Scorpius said, and then, feeling a bit braver, he added, "I'll buy you some candy if you tell me on the way there."

"Deal." Ruby shifted so she was sitting on one of her legs. "So, what kind of candy do wizards have? Are there any Mars Bars around here?"

Scorpius started to tell her about his world, and Ruby nodded eagerly, eyes alight.


	2. Hogwarts

The train stopped well after nightfall, and Scorpius and Ruby, now wearing their robes, stepped out and followed the line of students. Ruby stayed close by his side, for which he was grateful, since he didn't want to be separated from her and lost in the crowd. He doubted anyone else would be as nice to him as she was.

"Wow," Ruby whispered as they stepped off the train. "Mom will want to hear about this. Can we see the castle yet? Where's everyone going?"

"The older students get to ride coaches," he said. "We take boats to the castle." His parents had told him what he ought to expect, although Astoria had said that she wanted there to still be a few surprises. After all his eager and nervous questions, though, he wasn't sure what else there was to know.

"Firs' years! Firs' years, this way!"

His parents had told him about the half-giant Hagrid who brought the first year students across the lake to the castle, but nothing could have prepared Scorpius for how strong the man's voice was. He jumped, and Ruby grabbed his arm, though he suspected that was more out of excitement than nervousness. "Who's that?" she asked, looking up at the easily ten-foot tall man holding a lantern. Even though that question was being asked all around them, Hagrid bent down to get a closer look at Ruby.

"Rubeus Hagrid, miss," he said, holding out a hand for her to shake.

"I'm Ruby Miller," she said brightly, "and this is Scorpius Malfoy."

"Malfoy, eh?" Hagrid looked at Scorpius, who shrank back. The half-giant's dark, tangled hair was streaked with gray, and his eyes were black and reflected the light from the lantern. He looked as though he could just as easily be happy as angry, and Scorpius didn't want to risk provoking the latter. "Huh. Well, come on, you lot."

As he walked on, leading the mass of first-years to a group of boats, Ruby grabbed Scorpius's arm again. "What was that about?" she asked.

He didn't want to admit it among all these people, but Ruby was looking at him so curiously that he didn't want to deny her at least a proper answer. It might even be better if she heard it from him than from someone else. "My dad was a Death Eater," he mumbled. "So was my grandfather."

Ruby was silent after that, but she still held tight to his arm. Since Scorpius had expected her to step away and find some other friend, he was so surprised that for a moment he couldn't figure out his feet, and Ruby had to pull him into a boat with two other kids. Both gave Scorpius a nervous look before glancing away, and before Scorpius turned his attention to Hagrid in the first boat, he saw Ruby glare at them.

"Everyone here?" Hagrid called. "Righ' then. Let's go!" He tapped a large pink umbrella on the side of his boat, and all of them launched out across the dark waters.

Though Scorpius had heard his mother describe the castle to him, none of her words could match the shock at seeing it suddenly appear as the boats rounded a bend. The turrets seemed to cut into the sky with their spires, and the lights in the windows looked warm and inviting. Everyone around him gasped, and Scorpius leaned forward, grinning. It looked like it really could be a home, and maybe there would be people there who didn't care about his last name.

When the boats docked, Ruby helped Scorpius climb out, since the other two had been so excited to reach the castle that they had rocked the little boat in leaping out. Ruby was more sure-footed than he was, and when he asked her how she was so good with boats, she just laughed and said, "My dad rents a canoe and takes us on a tour of the lochs every summer. I've known how to handle boats since before I could walk."

The group clambered up the stairs to the front doors, and Hagrid knocked on them with his giant fist, so hard that any normal door would no doubt have fallen in. A moment later, the doors opened, and Hagrid stepped aside to reveal a broad-shouldered man with curling gray hair and a broad grin. "Thank you, Hagrid," he said, looking over the group. "We've got a good bunch this year, it looks like. You might want to head in to get a good seat; the Sorting's going to start as soon as we can get them inside."

Hagrid nodded and stepped inside, followed by the man and the group of first-years. The man led them through a smaller door, then into a little hall, where they all stopped. The man gestured for them to wait a moment, then peered through another door at the end of the hall.

"Ah, good, they've got the hat out. Now, for those of you who don't know what's going on, the Sorting Hat will tell you which house you belong in: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. I'm Head of Slytherin, so I hope to see a goodly number of you there. Our ranks are getting rather thin." He winked and grinned. "Also: ghosts. We have them. Don't be afraid; most of them are nice, though the Bloody Baron can be a bit frightening. You'll meet them in a bit. Anyway, in you go. I'll read your names off a list." A scroll of parchment slipped out of his sleeve, and he flipped it into the air with a flourish before catching it in his other hand. "Once you learn your house, run along and sit with them. They're easy enough to find if you follow the cheering. Try to move quickly, since we're all hungry and want the feast to start soon. Any questions? No? Good. Let's go!"

As the man led them through the door, Ruby leaned close to Scorpius and whispered, "He seems friendly. Maybe Slytherin isn't as bad as you think… oh! Look at the ceiling!"

Scorpius looked up and saw stars glittering in a velvet sky where he might have expected there to be gold plating or a mosaic. "It's enchanted to show the sky," he said.

"Sounds great for checking the weather," Ruby said.

"I've heard it's really exciting during a snowstorm." Scorpius tried to sound cheerful, but his voice faded away when he saw the Sorting Hat. It wasn't all that frightening by itself – it was just a ragged-looking hat sitting on a little three-legged stool – but the thought of it calling out for everyone to hear that there was another Malfoy in Slytherin made him shake all over. He was so nervous that he didn't notice Ruby's hand on his shoulder or even the words to the hat's song. His attention only came back to the world when the man with the curling hair opened the scroll and began calling out names.

"Akerman, Henry!"

A boy with yellow hair scrambled up to the stool and sat down as the man set the hat on his head. After a moment, the hat called out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" One of the tables broke into applause, and Henry set down the hat and raced down to join his new housemates.

From there, the Sorting went smoothly. Sometimes the hat took a long time, but for the most part, it was quick in making its decisions, sometimes even before it was set on the person's head. "Cecil, Seren", a girl with curly brown hair who strode up to the stool as though she were a princess was apparently so clearly a Gryffindor that the hat had barely settled onto her hair and the man still held the tip when it made its decision.

"Granger-Weasley, Rose!"

The girl he had seen on the train hopped up to the stool, her red curls bouncing with each step. She was grinning widely, and the hat had been on her head for three seconds before announcing her as a "GRYFFINDOR!" A roar erupted from the Gryffindor table, and he saw the boy with messy black hair standing and whooping as Rose raced to join them.

"Hlavač, Petra!"

Murmurs went through the crowd as a girl walked up to the hat. She took her time heading up there, and it took the hat a while to decide on "SLYTHERIN!" Looking only slightly nervous, she headed for the Slytherin table, which Scorpius noticed was a bit emptier than the others.

"Malfoy, Scorpius!"

The hall went silent, and Ruby squeezed his hand once before pushing him forward gently. "Good luck," she whispered, and he nodded before walking up to the hat. His stomach felt as though it had been carved out of his body and left far behind. Still, he couldn't turn back now. Then he'd be a coward as well as a scorpion, and he didn't think he could stand the embarrassment. When he reached the stool, the man with curly hair gave him an encouraging smile before dropping the hat on his head. It slipped almost to his eyes, and then he heard a faint, whispery voice in his ear.

_"Malfoy, eh? I wondered when I'd get another one."_

"Just don't put me in Slytherin," he whispered. "I want to be in Ravenclaw, like Ruby."

The hat laughed. _"She hasn't been sorted yet. Maybe she'll be a Hufflepuff. Besides, I think you'd do well in Slytherin. Your father and grandfather certainly did."_

"No," he whispered. "My father made a mistake because of Slytherin. I don't want to be like him."

_"You remind me of another boy, twenty-six years ago. He didn't want to be in Slytherin either, so I put him in Gryffindor."_

Scorpius's arms shook at the thought of being in the same house as that messy-haired boy who had looked at him as though he didn't belong on the train. "Not there," he whispered. "Ravenclaw."

_"You're clever, Malfoy, but you haven't got the same love of learning as the Ravenclaws. You're good-hearted, I'll tell you that, and I think it's time I made my decision." _The hat's voice grew lower, as though it were afraid someone might hear him. _"Will you trust me? I may be just an old hat, but I've seen – so to speak – a great deal, and I know things eleven-year-olds don't. Just remember: ambition can be used for good. Without the drive to act and achieve, nothing is accomplished. Will you remember that?"_

"I will," he whispered, and then the hat called out a single word to the hall.

"SLYTHERIN!"

There was no cheering, but Scorpius knew where the table was. He walked to it, glancing out at the hall. Ruby was smiling, but that could have been because her name had just been called. As he sat down, she was sorted into Ravenclaw, and the next student was called up.

"O'Leary, Vega!"

Another girl with curls strode up and was sorted into "RAVENCLAW!" After that, the hall fell silent again, but this time it was with expectation. The next name called would be something everyone knew, and even Scorpius leaned forward in anticipation.

"Potter, Albus!"

The smaller messy-haired boy went up to the stool, and it took nearly a minute for the hat to call out "SLYTHERIN!" Looking just as disappointed as Scorpius had felt, Albus walked to the quietly applauding Slytherin table and sat down.

"Read, Iekika!"

A brown-skinned girl hopped up, and the hat called out "RAVENCLAW!" With an eager grin, she ran down to the table and found a spot next to Ruby. Scorpius looked down at his empty plate, trying not to feel jealous.

The last person called was "Xavier, Alexander", a boy with sharp cheekbones and tight black curls all over his head. He became a Gryffindor, and then the hat and stool were swept away. A dark-haired woman dressed in green robes got to her feet, and everyone's eyes turned to her.


	3. Albus

The woman spread her arms in one of the most welcoming gestures Scorpius had ever seen. "Welcome, one and all, to Hogwarts, quite possibly the best wizarding school in the world." As a laugh rose up from the students, she continued in a magically amplified voice, "For those who don't know, I am Belén Zahradnik, Headmistress of Hogwarts. It's a pleasure to have you here, but before we dig into our feasts, I'd like to start off with a few rules."

As Professor Zahradnik started warning students away from the Forbidden Forest, an older girl with green eyes leaned close and whispered to Scorpius and Albus, "It's true, you know. She isn't from Britain."

Scorpius wondered how she had known what he was thinking, but Albus nodded. "I thought so, from the name, but why would she be teaching at Hogwarts?"

"She came over during the war," the girl said. "She's a great fighter, and Minerva McGonagall herself gave her the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts. She's a wonderful Headmistress, too. She's strict sometimes, but she's really fair."

As Professor Zahradnik's speech toned down and more people began looking expectantly at their plates, Scorpius turned his attention to the boy sitting across from him. He looked a lot like the messy-haired boy from the train, and Scorpius assumed he had to be his younger brother. His hair wasn't quite as unruly, but it did look as though it hadn't been combed for two days, and his eyes were bright green. He was looking alternately at his plate and at Scorpius, and after a moment, he said, "I'm Albus Potter."

"I know." After a moment, he said, "I'm Scorpius Malfoy."

"I know." Albus toyed with his fork before whispering, "I'm not sure if I should be in Slytherin."

"Me neither," Scorpius murmured, and Albus smiled. It was a quick, shy smile, but it was nice, and Scorpius wondered if perhaps they could be friends. He was already betraying what the Malfoys had stood for by befriending a Muggleborn; how much worse could befriending a Potter be?

Just then, Professor Zahradnik sat down, and food appeared on the golden platters. It was a bounty even greater than Scorpius was used to at home, and for a moment all he could do was stare up and down the table. There were littleneck clams covered in herb butter, and heavily seasoned steak, and something that looked like it was mostly soy. There was a dish that was almost nothing but cheese and eggplants, and another cheese dish with tomatoes on top, and pasta with garlic and red chiles. Everything smelled so good that Scorpius couldn't decide, and it took a nudge from the girl next to him to break him from his reverie.

"You'll want to get some quick, before it's all gone," she said, grinning.

Scorpius didn't need more of an invitation, and he loaded his plate with chicken covered in lemon and parsley and a salad drizzled all over with olive oil. It was incredible, even better than the house elves at home would make, and it wasn't long before he had cleared his plate and taken a second helping. He was stuffed by the time dessert appeared, but he still managed to eat a large slice of peach pie and a decent helping of spiced pudding.

When the last of the food vanished from their plates, Scorpius felt too full to move, but he managed to get to his feet anyway. The older girl had moved to the head of the table and was calling, "First years, this way! I'll show you to our dorms! Come on, first years, let's move along!"

She led the group of first years down to the dungeons and to a flat wall. Scorpius and Albus were both yawning, and one of the other first years looked about to fall asleep on her feet. He wondered how many of their small group had actually wanted to be in Slytherin and how many had been pushed in by the Sorting Hat for whatever strange reason it had.

"Squid's eye," the girl said, and a passage opened through the wall, leading to a dark room filled with green lanterns and richly upholstered furniture. It looked rather cold and lonely, and through the windows, Scorpius could only see water and a few fish that swam past in quick flickers. There was a fireplace with a cheerful blaze in it, but the light only made the rest of the room seem eerier. The only friendly thing he could see was the stacks of books scattered about the room. Some of the older students were already there, reading, and a few looked up and smiled.

"Got the batch of new kids, Margaret?" a dark-skinned boy lounging on a couch said. The firelight reflected off his bald head and made his eyes shine like bronze coins. "Took you long enough."

"It would have gone a bit faster with your help, Eli," she snapped. "I'm just lucky they were quiet this year." Turning to the first years, she said, "Well, I'm Margaret Frobisher, one of your Prefects, and this is the other, Eli Aiken. I'm not really sure how he got this job, but it hardly matters now. If you have a problem, you can come to one of us."

"Preferably her," Eli said. Margaret shot him a dirty look before continuing.

"Your things should already have arrived, and your dormitories are down the halls. They're marked Boys and Girls, so you shouldn't have any trouble figuring out which is which. Any questions?"

No one moved. Albus yawned and rubbed one of his eyes.

"Right then. Now, you probably noticed that the windows look into the lake. Don't be alarmed if you see the giant squid now and then; he's a friendly sort. The water should help you fall asleep, too, not that you need it." She smiled as she looked over the group. "Now, then, off to bed with you. You've got a busy day tomorrow."

Scorpius and Albus headed into the boys' dormitory with the three other Slytherin boys, Len Huddleson, Eric Radcliff, and Napier Adair. None of them had particularly old wizarding names, and Scorpius couldn't help but feel a little old-fashioned around them. At least Albus's name was just as unusual.

Scorpius changed into his pajamas and settled down in his bed. It was soft, and the lapping of the water against the window was soothing enough that he was able to fall asleep almost instantly.

* * *

Margaret had lied. The next day wasn't a very big day at all. The second of September fell on a Saturday, which meant all the students had a weekend to themselves as soon as they arrived. She seemed just as surprised by this as everyone else and, laughing, said she must have lost track of the days of the week during the summer. She then told the first years to go and explore the castle, but not to get too badly lost.

Most of the first years lingered around the common room, but that got boring quickly, and Scorpius got to his feet after barely seven minutes of watching some of the older students play Exploding Snap. Albus sat next to him, scuffing his feet on the floor, and Scorpius grabbed the boy's shoulder, whispering, "Hey, do you want to get out of here for a bit?"

"Sure," Albus said, following him out. "Um… are you sure we ought to be friends?"

He wasn't, but there was an itch in the back of his mind that made him want to do something, and he didn't want to go out and do things alone. He'd had more than enough of that, and if Albus wasn't going to whisper about him or call him _the Malfoy boy_, then he might as well do things with Albus. "Well, we're both in Slytherin, aren't we?" he asked, leading Albus out of the common room.

"Yeah, I guess so," Albus said.

"And my dad always told me that my house would be like my family."

"That's what my dad said, too," Albus said, brightening. "So… we should be friends because we're in Slytherin?"

"We're in Slytherin but we don't belong there," Scorpius said. "We have to be friends."

They stepped out into the hall. This was it. If Albus turned back now, then Scorpius would be alone. If they continued together, then he would have made his first pureblood friend. "All right," Albus said after a moment. "But I don't want to tell my parents. Dad said he'd be proud of me even if I ended up in Slytherin, but I'm not sure how he'd feel about my being friends with Draco Malfoy's son."

"I won't tell my parents either," Scorpius said. He wasn't sure he would tell his parents about either of his friends. After all, both of them were people that a son of the Malfoy family shouldn't have been associating with.

"And we can't tell James," Albus said as they started down the hall, heading for the stairs.

"Who's James?"

"My brother. He thought I would end up in Slytherin because I'm named after one, and if I start making friends here, he'll think that I really do belong in this house. Rose might not mind too much. At least, I hope she doesn't."

Scorpius hadn't been sure where he wanted to go, but now an idea settled into his head almost at once. "Come on! Let's show your brother that you won't make friends just in Slytherin." He broke into a run, and Albus followed, their robes waving about their legs.

"Where are we going?" Albus called.

"We're going to find the Ravenclaw common room," Scorpius said. "There's someone I'd like you to meet."

They ran everywhere, up stairs and down corridors, looking for someone who might answer their question. Most people saw their house colors and sniffed before walking away, and someone laughed, asking if they were lost. They didn't stop until the fifth floor, where both of them slumped against a wall, out of breath and sweating.

"We could head for Gryffindor Tower," Albus said after a moment. "I've heard enough of Dad's stories to know where that is."

Scorpius shook his head. "Two Slytherins trying to head to the Gryffindor common room? People would laugh even more." With a sigh, he got to his feet and rolled his ankles. "Let's keep looking. If we go through every floor, we're bound to find it sometime."

"Scorpius?"

He turned and saw Ruby walking down the hall. She had pinned her hair up in a braid, and a smile spread across her face when she saw that it really was him.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked, barely giving him enough time to say hello. "I thought you'd be tucked away in the dungeons. And is this the newest Potter?" She turned to Albus, her eyes wide. "Everyone's talking about you. I didn't realize wizards had celebrities, too."

Albus was blushing, and Scorpius quickly put an arm around his shoulders. "This is Albus," he said. "Albus, this is Ruby. We met on the train."

"Nice to meet you," Albus said, holding out his hand. Ruby shook it eagerly.

"So where were you two headed?" she asked. "You look like someone's been chasing you."

"We were looking for you," Scorpius said. "I wanted Albus to meet you, so he would have friends outside of Slytherin."

"Well, you found me," Ruby said. "Come on, let's all go out to the lake. I want to see if I can catch a glimpse of the squid. I thought they only lived in oceans."

"We can see it from our common room," Albus said as the three of them started for the stairs. "Well, that's what our Prefect said."

"Lucky!" Ruby cried. "We just live in a tower. The view's nice, but it's nothing without a squid."


	4. Classes

The weekend flew by, and Scorpius didn't realize how quickly it was gone until Sunday night, when he and Albus were heading to bed after a day of exploring the castle with Ruby. She had shown them how to reach the Ravenclaw common room and made them promise to come visit her sometime. The riddles they had to answer to get in were tricky, but with a little thought they could figure them out. They told her the Slytherin password and promised to bring her down to the dungeon so she could see the squid. That had excited her more than Scorpius had thought, and for a moment he thought she might kiss them both.

"Squid's eye," he said, and the passage opened up, letting them inside. Albus had cheered up considerably after that first day, and there had been moments when he was practically skipping.

"Do you think she really will come to visit?" he asked. "I hope she does. I'd like to see her again." There was a faint blush on Albus's cheeks, but Scorpius paid it no mind. He had no doubt that his cheeks were flushed as well after all the running they had done.

"If she doesn't, we'll visit her," he said. Ruby had told them that Ravenclaws were quite as prejudiced against Slytherin as everyone else, so they would at worst be treated with indifference.

Margaret glanced up from her book as they entered. "Finally, the last two have shown up. I've been making sure to tell everyone that classes start tomorrow. If you get confused about where to go, just find me, or an older student, or a ghost. We're all pretty friendly." Closing her book, she got to her feet and stretched. "Good night. If you have nightmares, bother Eli. It's about time he did something for you kids." Muffling a yawn with her hand, she headed to her dorm.

* * *

The atmosphere at the tables the next day was more subdued than it had been over the weekend. Scorpius ate his toast and eggs more slowly than usual, and Albus picked at his sausage. Excited as he was to learn magic and go to class, Scorpius would miss the freedom he'd had over the past two days of finding everything there was to find and spending time with Ruby. At least he'd have Albus with him, since they were in the same house.

When they could put it off no longer, they got to their feet and headed out of the Great Hall. "What have we got first?" Scorpius asked.

"Herbology with the Gryffindors." Albus had been silently appointed the schedule keeper for their group of first years, and they followed him out of the castle and to the greenhouses. Apparently, as a Potter he was more trustworthy than any of the rest of them, though Scorpius secretly thought it was because everyone else had decided to foist responsibility onto whoever seemed most likely to give in.

The greenhouses sat on a grassy slope overlooking the lake, and by the time they got there, most of the Gryffindors had already arrived. They looked just as nervous and unsure as the Slytherins, and the two groups stood apart for a while until one of them shouted, "Albus!" The red-haired girl, Rose, broke out of the group and ran over to the Slytherins to grab Albus's hand. "Come on. I haven't seen you all weekend. I thought you were going to come visit me."

"I wasn't sure if James would want me to," Albus mumbled, looking down, but Rose was tugging him away from the Slytherins and to a spot in between the groups, heedless of everyone's attention.

"Well, I don't care what James thinks," Rose said. "You're my favorite cousin, not him, and if this is the only time we get to see each other, I want to spend it with you, not staring like we're part of two completely different groups."

"But we are," Albus said. He glanced back at the Slytherins as though to ask for help, but they were either too amused by the spectacle or too frightened of Rose to do anything. "You know how Gryffindors and Slytherins feel about each other."

When he glanced back again, it was an appeal to Scorpius, and Scorpius nearly stepped forward to pull Albus back to their side, but then he saw the way Rose was looking at her cousin. She had missed Albus, and there was a fierce affection in her eyes that Scorpius couldn't imagine anyone holding for him. He waved for Albus to go over and join the Gryffindors at the same time as Rose said, "That was in our parents' time. Things have changed. The Muggle world's completely different now, so I don't see why the wizarding world has to be stuck in the same thing for eternity."

Albus swallowed and nodded. "So… can I introduce you to a friend of mine?"

Rose's eyes lit up. "You've already made friends? Uncle Harry was right. You'll do fine in Slytherin." A few people sniggered on both sides, but a glare from Rose silenced them.

Albus looked over his shoulder at the Slytherin group again, and this time Scorpius knew he would have to do something. Legs shaking under his robe, he stepped forward until he stood next to Albus, who had pulled free of Rose to drape an arm over Scorpius's shoulder. "Rose, this is Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius, this is Rose, my cousin."

"Nice to meet you," Scorpius said, holding out a hand. Rose shook it firmly and looked into his eyes with a grin that bordered on terrifying.

"I hope you like having a rival, Malfoy," she said. "I'm not going to rest until I've got the top marks in this school. If you want to show off by being clever, then you're out of luck."

Her grip on his hand was so tight it hurt, and he struggled to keep nearly as tight a grip on hers. "I hope you're ready for a fight, Granger-Weasley," he said, though his voice shook, and he had only spoken so he wouldn't have to back down. As he looked at her blue eyes, he realized that he had meant it, and that he would be willing to have her as his rival. He hadn't thought about trying to get top marks – he had only wanted to live a good life – but now being the best student didn't seem at all like a bad idea.

Rose laughed and released his hand. "Maybe it'll be easier for you if we stick to a first-name basis, Scorpius. If I'd known having two last names would make you stumble over a mouthful, I'd have settled for one."

They were interrupted by a scarred, blond man sprinting down from the castle. He nodded briefly at the group in the middle before skidding to a stop by the door of Greenhouse One, out of breath. "Sorry I'm late," he said. "Belén needed a quick word. Anyway, welcome to Herbology. All of you are supposed to be here, right? No Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs?" After quickly glancing over the group, the man seemed assured that only Gryffindors and Slytherins were there. "Great. I'm Neville Longbottom, Herbology professor and Head of Gryffindor. If you want to laugh at my name, do it quick, because we've got a lot of material to cover this year."

A few people giggled, but the laughter lasted for less than a minute before dying down. Most of the laughter came from Muggle-borns, since wizards were likely used to hearing unusual names. Once it was done, Professor Longbottom pushed open the door to the greenhouse and ushered them inside.

"This is the safest greenhouse you'll be in, but I still wouldn't touch anything if I were you," he called. "Nothing here will kill you, but last year a girl wound up in the hospital wing with acid burns on her arms because she'd accidentally brushed up against a Salem Witchbane. Dead useful plant, but it hates girls for some reason." When the boys in the room started laughing, Professor Longbottom grinned and said, "Don't worry, though. There's plenty of danger to the boys. The Witchbane has a related plant that directs its attacks at men's eyeballs – and other areas – and each class has come up with some kind of crude name for it. You won't face it for another few years, though, so don't worry."

The class fell silent at that, and one of the Gryffindor boys had turned pale.

Once they were all inside and Professor Longbottom had closed the door, Scorpius expected the atmosphere to change to one of business and for them to get straight to work. Professor Longbottom did take role, but he had something to say to each student, whether it was a friendly greeting for Rose and Albus or just a word of encouragement or advice. The advice was specific to that person, but it was quite possibly the strangest advice Scorpius had ever heard. Sally Vale was told that vampires weren't quite as dangerous as everyone made them out to be, Chloe Thane was warned against trying to walk across the lake in winter, and Trevor Stokes was advised to become a toad Animagus.

Professor Longbottom called out the names in no particular order, perhaps to keep the students on their toes, and he hesitated a moment before calling, "Scorpius Malfoy!"

"Present," Scorpius said. He was tempted to look down at the table, which was covered in plant clippings, but instead he met the professor's gaze and waited for what he would say. For a moment, he thought he wouldn't say anything but would move onto the next name.

In a graver voice than before, Professor Longbottom said, "I knew your father. I also know that he's done far more than what most people will care to admit. The world likes a simple story, Scorpius, and I want you to remember that things aren't always black and white. No matter what anyone else says, Draco was not an evil man."

"Thank you," Scorpius mumbled, and without further ado, they were on to the next student, who Professor Longbottom advised to find something called the Room of Requirement for extra credit.

The rest of the class was spent learning how to identify different plants using their copies of _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_. Professor Longbottom told them to pair up and work together to fill out a parchment, and whoever got the most would get five points to their house. Albus and Rose ended up together, and Scorpius worked with Sally Vane, a Slytherin with long fingers and a permanent glare. They got all but three, partly because they spent a fair bit of the time arguing over whether a leaf was kelly green or a darker shade. Rose and Albus got the top score, not missing one, and Professor Longbottom gave the points to both houses. Rose shot Scorpius a triumphant grin as they left the greenhouse, and the two groups separated. The Gryffindors had Potions next, while the Slytherins were headed for Transfiguration.

"Rose did most of the work," Albus told Scorpius as he led the group to the Transfiguration classroom. "I just wrote down what she told me to."

"You must have helped at least a little," Scorpius said. "Besides, you'll do something to deserve the points later. If Sally hadn't kept arguing with me, I would have gotten those points."

"If I hadn't corrected you, you would have missed half of them," Sally called from the back of the group.

Ignoring her, Albus said, "Second place isn't too bad. And it's only the first day. Maybe Rose is just really good at Herbology but terrible at Arithmancy."

"Maybe." Scorpius wasn't convinced, and as the Slytherins picked out their desks, he leaned over to look at the schedule in Albus's hand. There had to be something he could beat Rose at.


	5. Autumn

The last remnants of summer passed quickly. There had been a few warm days, but soon everyone was starting to bundle up with thin gloves and scarves. The lake stopped being a place for students to wade in, and now if anyone happened to fall in, it was off to their dormitory to warm up by the fire, or perhaps to Madam Longbottom for a Pepper-Up Potion. The Forbidden Forest turned from dark green to a riot of reds and oranges, except for the few conifers that were as verdant as ever. James Potter got caught sneaking in and was given a week's detention. Apparently he tried to go deeper into the forest each year, and most kids saw him as either a madman or a hero for it. The latter came mostly from his fellow Gryffindors, though a few people in other houses looked at him with envy.

Classes were going wonderfully. Scorpius and Rose kept up their little rivalry in Herbology, but they didn't have any other classes together. Potions was with the Ravenclaws, and Flying Class was with the Hufflepuffs. For all the other classes, the Slytherins were on their own, and Scorpius managed to prove himself as one of the smartest of his age. It took a great deal of studying with Ruby and Albus, but every lost hour to the books was worth it to see the annoyance on Sally Vane's face when a professor complimented him on getting a spell right or on having a perfect score on a quiz.

Charms was easily his favorite class, but Flying Class was nearly as enjoyable. His father had sometimes allowed him to borrow his broom, so he already knew the basics of flying, even if his grip wasn't quite perfect. That was the one class where Sally Vane could best him, showing off and doing little tricks which Madam Pope, a tan woman with thin eyebrows, thought were very clever.

"Why are you letting her show you up?" Albus asked one brisk morning as they walked to lunch. "I bet you could be twice as good as she is."

Scorpius looked over to where Sally stood in the middle of a small group of Slytherins, laughing. "I already have to deal with being the Malfoy boy," he said. "I don't want to be a show-off, too." With a little smile, he added, "Besides, she isn't my real rival. I've only been beating her because she's in my way of beating Rose."

"You've been smiling a lot more lately," Albus said as they sat down to eat before Charms.

"What do you mean?" He smiled more at Hogwarts than he did at home, but then, Hogwarts was the sort of place he felt he could smile, and Albus hadn't known him before then.

"That first night," Albus said through a mouthful of sandwich. "You were the gloomiest one in the hall except for me. Now you look happy."

"I am happy." Scorpius took a swig of pumpkin juice. "You're a lot happier than you were that night, too."

"Yeah," Albus said with a grin. "I'm used to being happy. You looked like you didn't think you could ever be happy at all."

"I'm happy now. Isn't that what matters?" He got up and slung his bag over his shoulder. "Come on. I want to get a good seat in Charms so Sally Vane can see just how good I am. She can be the best flyer Slytherin's had in a hundred years; I'm still going to be able to float a ten-pound brick across a classroom while she's working on that two-pound book."

His bragging wasn't entirely unjustified; he was often the first to master a new spell, or, if someone beat him to that, to do something more advanced with it the next day. A few people said he should have been in Ravenclaw, but only Sally Vane meant it in a cruel way. When he told Ruby about it one day in Potions while Albus checked that their cauldron temperature was correct, she laughed.

"I'd have liked to have you in Ravenclaw, but I think you fit better in Slytherin," she said.

"What do you mean?" He was sure she hadn't meant to insult him, but after what he had told her on the train, he couldn't help thinking that she meant it as some kind of warning. "Am I turning evil?"

"Not at all!" Ruby said. "I just meant that… well, we Ravenclaws like to get high marks, and we do a lot of studying, even stuff we don't need for class, but we don't compete as much as you do. Our rivalries are a lot friendlier."

"It was Rose Granger-Weasley's idea," he said. "Maybe she should be the one in Slytherin."

Ruby shook her head. "You told me about how she was talking about it. She's doing this for the fun of it. She probably does want to win, but she'll do it like a Gryffindor, laughing all the way and taking this as good fun if she loses – not that she'll admit until then that she's likely to lose. You're doing this to win, and you're being cunning about it. Albus told me about the way you're treating Sally Vane."

Albus blushed and looked sheepishly at Scorpius. "It's all right," he said, and Albus turned his attention back to the cauldron. "How do you know all this stuff, Ruby? About how the houses behave, and all that?"

"I'm interested in it," Ruby said. "One of the older Ravenclaws has a book about it, and she's letting me read it when she's not around. Well…" She hesitated and toyed with a daisy root. "She doesn't actually know she's letting me. She might know that someone's been reading it, since I'm not sure I've managed to put it back in the right place every time, and I'm sure if she knew it was me, she wouldn't mind."

"I need that daisy root soon," Albus said, and with a squeak, Ruby started slicing it. "Scorpius, are you going to measure the newt eyes any time soon?"

"I'm doing that now," Scorpius said, pulling the scales toward him and scooping newt eyes from the jar with a little spoon. Once he had enough, he passed the scales to Albus, who dumped the eyes into the cauldron. Ruby slid the root to Albus, and he scraped it in.

"Now we just have to wait. I thought you were serious about beating Sally in every class."

Scorpius glanced at Ruby, who simply shrugged and said, "She isn't my rival."

"She's not that great at Potions," Scorpius said, pointing across the room. Sally's cauldron was emitting puffs of green smoke rather than the steady stream of blue, and she was hastily flipping through her book to figure out what might have gone wrong. "I'll do more of the work next time, though."

"You'd better," Albus said. "It's my turn to talk to Ruby."

The hardest class, at least when it came to learning actual magic, was Transfiguration. Professor Osborne, a short woman who seemed to dislike every student who passed through the doors to her classroom – at least, Scorpius had heard complaints about her from every house, so he suspected she didn't play favorites as some others did – didn't make matters any easier. The subject required a great deal of concentration, and though Scorpius was among the best in his class, he couldn't help feeling like a constant disappointment. The only good thing was that she spent most of the class talking and required only one demonstration, so he was able to do most of his transfiguring in the common room wherever the trio happened to gather.

The hardest class of all was History of Magic. The subject itself wasn't difficult, and in the hands of any other professor it would have been fascinating. However, just as it had been in his father's time and his grandfather's before that, it was taught by Professor Binns, a ghost who floated through one of the walls at the start of class and droned on about wars and goblins. Sally Vane scribbled down notes every day, shooting triumphant looks at Scorpius, who barely filled a parchment by the end and spent most of his time playing a whispered game of hangman with Albus. Despite his seeming lack of interest, Scorpius did manage to ace every test the ghost gave the class. He wrote down the subject that Professor Binns was talking about and spent some time in the library researching it. The books, dry and dusty as they were, were far more interesting than the professor.

Quidditch season would start soon, and though Scorpius wasn't much interested in playing, he was asked by Fionnuala Power, Slytherin's captain, to try out the next year, as they would likely be in need of reserve players. He and Albus agreed, and she looked about ready to hug them both. She did manage to hold herself back and promised not to force them on the field unless they were absolutely desperate.

"How am I going to have time to study if I have to do Quidditch practice, too?" Scorpius asked after she had left. He hadn't dared ask in front of Fionnuala; she was nearly two feet taller than he was and had muscles all over her body. Though he didn't think she would have struck him for asking a question, he was still intimidated.

"You'll find time," Albus said. "If I don't get on, I'll make notes for you, and I know Ruby will help."

Scorpius frowned. "That feels too much like cheating. If I'm going to beat Rose, I want to do it on my own."

"Rose probably has help," Albus said. "James has been teaching her spells since he started going to Hogwarts, and he's in his fourth year. She's already got an advantage." He sprinkled a little more bread onto his soup before continuing, "Besides, Sally Vane's probably going to be on the team. Don't you want to show her that you can fly just as well as she can?"

"She's not my rival," Scorpius said, but as he looked down the table at Sally and Fionnuala talking, he felt a sudden desire to show her up, once and for all. "I'll try out," he said, "and I'll do as well as I can, but I'll do it because I promised Fionnuala, not because I want to beat Sally."

He did want to beat Sally, though. He wanted to beat her at everything. If she had been in some other house, he might not have cared as much, but he had to see her in every class, and he was sure she found just the right spot so he would always have to look at her, just as he always found the right spot so she could see him beat her. He saw her at meals and in the common room, too. She never did anything to outright antagonize him, but he could tell how she felt by the way she would glance at him in the middle of class or as they walked down the hall.

_I saw you cast that spell, _the glance seemed to say, or _I saw you do that trick with your broom. I can do it just as well as you can. I can do it better._

_I dare you to,_ he tried to say with his own glance, but he wasn't sure he could communicate with his eyes as well as she could.

Scorpius got a letter from his parents every week, and he always wrote one back in response. He hadn't told his parents about Albus and Ruby yet, but he did say that he was making friends, and he did mention Sally Vane. He also alluded to Rose Granger-Weasley and their rivalry, and in the letter back, his father said that he wished him the best of luck in beating her.


	6. The Lost Princess

Charms was taught by the gray-haired head of Slytherin, Professor Baumhauer. He was a pleasant man who liked showing off, and the first several minutes of class were filled with him demonstrating the spell they would work on that day in the flashiest manner possible. His performances almost always got a round of applause, and if there was time at the end of class, he would demonstrate some high-level magic. Scorpius always watched this part carefully, but when he tried it on his own, either nothing happened or he would end up breaking something. At least _Reparo _was an easy spell to master.

Halloween was coming up, and apparently that was the professor's favorite holiday, for he had decided that, since everyone had gotten all the questions correct in last week's quiz – though only Scorpius had gotten full points in the extra credit section – he would take a day to show off in exchange for all of them doing a little extra homework that night. Since the homework was usually something easy like choosing a new spell to master and show to the class or writing a two-page short essay on something to do with theory, they all agreed at once. With a flick of Professor Baumhauser's wand, the desks arranged themselves in a circle, and as everyone scrambled to get a seat, the professor stepped into the middle and flicked his wand again, drawing the curtains nearly closed so the room felt eerie and old.

"Now," he said, with a smile that sent shivers down Scorpius's spine, "you children all know what holiday comes at the end of this week. I could tell you about adventures I got into with my friends, roaming the countryside of Germany, or about what Durmstrang would do at this time of year, but I didn't grow up in Germany, nor did I attend Durmstrang." His smile grew lighter. "I'm from Sussex. My grandparents were immigrants, but you don't need to know my family history. I grew up trick-or-treating in a Muggle neighborhood, then running home to eat sweets and watch scary movies. However, this doesn't mean that Halloween is all light-hearted fun. You children are just about at the age where you want the darkness to come back to All Hallows' Eve. Am I correct?"

Everyone nodded, and someone whooped.

"Excellent. Now, today I will show you some magic you should not attempt until you are at least in your seventh year, perhaps not even then." He rolled up the sleeves of his bright orange robe and lifted his wand into the air. "I am going to summon a dreadful being from beyond our world!"

Someone let out a small scream that was both excited and terrified, and Scorpius leaned forward, wanting to catch every motion. He wasn't foolish enough to try this sort of spell yet, but he did want to look up the theory. That would get him to beat Rose, and it would show Sally Vane. Albus bent close to Scorpius and whispered, "Two sickles says it's just an illusion."

"I'll take that bet." The professor had never done anything to do with illusion, and the smoke swirling from his wand onto the floor looked very real. Scorpius could even smell it, but it didn't smell like normal smoke. It was sweet and nutty, like a candy, but there was also the scent of freshly cut grass. The two smells didn't clash with each other but fused into something beautiful and ethereal.

"Now, don't worry," the professor said as the smoke formed a column. "I'm placing a binding around this creature. It won't be able to harm any of you. Now, who's ready to be terrified?"

It was a rhetorical question, but a few hands shot up around the room, and the professor laughed.

"I'll conjure something that could scare even a Gryffindor," he said, and a laugh went around the room. Scorpius wondered whether the professor would do this for his other classes as well. Ruby would probably be fascinated.

The smoke continued to coil, rising until it reached the middle of the professor's chest. He frowned, perhaps expecting a larger monster, but then blew on the smoke. It vanished at once, and everyone gasped in shock. Professor Baumhauer staggered back, and Albus nearly fell out of his chair.

The monster was a girl.

She looked no older than the rest of them but had straight white hair cut short. Though she was small, she looked like a warrior, though the effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that she was wearing a green gown. She glared around the room with sharp gray eyes, but after circling once, the glare turned into an expression of fear, and for lack of anywhere better to hide, she wrapped her arms around her waist and looked as though she was about to shrink into herself.

The professor was the first to recover. "Ah… miss? Are you all right? Who are you?"

The girl was silent, and someone started to laugh. Scorpius didn't bother to look around and see who it was. He was too fascinated by the girl. She had the same coloring as he did, and the look in her eyes was one that he was sure had been in his on the first of September. "Professor?" he said, but Professor Baumhauer paid him no mind.

"I suppose I ought to send you to Professor Zahradnik," he said. "She'll know better than I do what's going on. Now… um…" He looked around the room, as though contemplating whether to dismiss class early and go himself. Scorpius got to his feet and stood in front of his desk.

"Sir," he said, "I could take her."

"You know the way?"

His father had mentioned the gargoyle and the golden staircase, and if he had to, he could always ask a ghost for directions. "I don't know the password."

Professor Baumhauer wrote it down on a scrap of parchment. "You'll be missing the rest of class, most likely," he said as Scorpius tucked the parchment into his bag. "I'll let you off easy this time, but I expect you to do the extra credit assignment for tonight in addition to the regular homework."

Scorpius left to the sound of Sally Vane complaining that he always did the extra credit, and it wasn't a fair punishment. The girl walked just behind him, and when he glanced back at her, she was staring directly at him. "I don't suppose you'll tell me your name," he said. When she made no response, he said, "I'm Scorpius. Scorpius Malfoy. It's nice to meet you."

The girl said nothing. She didn't say a word as they walked through the halls, nor when Scorpius told the gargoyle something in a foreign language – at least Professor Baumhauer had written it phonetically – nor even at the golden staircase topped by a phoenix. The staircase rose, taking them all the way up to Professor Zahradnik's office, and only when Scorpius raised his hand to knock on the door did the girl say, "My name is Avina."

Scorpius lowered his hand. "Where are you from, Avina?"

"I'm from a land called Essemeulia." The word sounded almost liquid in her mouth, and Scorpius doubted he would be able to pronounce it. "What is this place?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." When Avina still looked confused, he said, "Scotland." Still nothing. "Britain." Again, her face was blank. "You've never heard of Britain?"

"She isn't from this world, Mr. Malfoy."

Scorpius jumped at the voice, and when he turned, he saw that the door was open and Professor Zahradnik stood looking down at both of them. She gestured for them to come in, and as soon as they had both entered, the door swung shut behind them.

Her office was nearly Spartan. The only decorations were the portraits hanging on the walls and several books scattered about. A large cat purred on the floor, and Professor Zahradnik stepped over it as she went to sit behind her desk. "For a pair of eleven-year-olds, the two of you speak very loudly, so I don't think I'll need to ask any questions," she said. "However, I think Malfoy deserves some explanation. If Avina really is from Essemeulia –" Her pronunciation was flawless. "– then she has never heard of Britain, much less of Scotland. Essemeulia is a land from another world, and unless my miss my guess, Avina is a member of the royal family."

"Yes, my lady Zahradnik," Avina said, curtsying slightly.

Professor Zahradnik smiled. "Your Highness, there's no need to curtsy, or to call me lady. I'm only the Headmistress of a school. I expect you'll want to go back home."

"As soon as possible," Avina said.

"I'll need to have some words with whoever brought you here, then. It would have taken some powerful magic." She turned her attention to Scorpius, and her tone lost its softness. "I take it you were there at the time, Malfoy?"

"Yes," he said. "Professor Baumhauer –"

Professor Zahradnik sighed. "I'll need to have some words with that man. He keeps meddling in things that aren't safe, and someday he's going to end up killing someone. Indirectly, of course. I doubt the man could hurt a fly without pitying it."

"He was only trying to have some fun," Scorpius said. "It was just a little Halloween trick. He wanted to show us a monster, and Avina showed up instead."

Professor Zahradnik got to her feet and smiled. "You don't need to be so worried, Malfoy. I'm not going to fire Axel. I only need to know what sort of magic he used so I can use the same to return Avina to her home. I don't want any of her people going to war because they think some other kingdom stole her away."

"Professor?" Scorpius asked. "May I ask a question?"

"I don't see why not," she said. "I've heard a fair bit about you, Malfoy. This is the first time neither the top two first years have been in Ravenclaw. Miss Granger-Weasley, we expected, but you're apparently quite the skilled wizard. You're nearly as good as she is." Her smile looked a little teasing, but Scorpius felt as though a fire had been lit inside him. A close second was still second. "Ask away. I assume Professor Baumhauer doesn't need you any longer today, and if you stay too long, I'll write a note to excuse you from any other classes you miss."

A whole afternoon to ask the Headmistress questions. Scorpius wanted very badly to sit down, but he forced himself to stay standing. "How do you know so much about… about Ess…"

"Essemeulia?" When Scorpius nodded, she said, "I studied at a very small school in Turkey. Normally I would have gone to Durmstrang, but my parents had been hearing rumors about Death Eaters at that school, and they didn't approve of a place that had such a strong connection to the Dark Arts, so I got sent to Şahin Gölet. They teach the normal curriculum, but the professors there have made discoveries about other worlds than ours. Princess Avina is very lucky that my mentor studied the world containing Essemeulia. I'll have to send her a letter to get her opinion. In the meantime, we'll need to find the princess a place to stay."

"With him," Avina said. "I'd like to stay with him."

"Malfoy? Is that all right with you?"

"Sure," he said. "But… is she going to sleep in the boys' dormitory, or…"

"I'll speak with Miss Frobisher about that. From what I've heard, she'd be more likely to help Princess Avina. Now, off you two go. I've got a lot of work to do."

As they went down the staircase, Scorpius said, "I hope it's all right that I live in the dungeons."

Avina sighed. "I've had to deal with worse. Are the others there as friendly as you?"


	7. A Quartet

Scorpius didn't bring Avina to the dungeons. Instead, he brought her to the Charms classroom and caught up with Albus just as he was leaving. The two started talking, and Scorpius hoped that Avina would take just as well to Ruby so they could be a group of four, even if it was only for a little while.

"I'm from a beautiful city," Avina said in response to Albus's questions. "There's glass everywhere, cut just right so the sunlight makes rainbows on the ground. The streets are gardens with little tracks cut into the ways so carts can go through. Everyone there is happy, and I only want to return to my people, so they won't be worried about me."

Scorpius decided not to drag Avina with him to any other classes; people were already staring at her in the halls, and though she looked a bit more at ease, he doubted having a whole class of eleven-year-old Slytherins staring at her would make her feel at home at Hogwarts. He wanted her to be comfortable with this place, especially if it took Professor Zahradnik a while to work out how to send her back to her own kingdom. Albus promised to tell Scorpius the homework and to take notes for him, and Scorpius brought Avina to the Slytherin common room.

"This isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be," she said as they entered. Not many people were in there, and those who were had already passed their O.W.L.s and were polite enough not to gawp, although they did sneak several looks up from their work or their games. "When you said you lived in a dungeon, I thought you meant a place with torture instruments and such – not that Essemeulia has those, of course."

She was about the same size as Scorpius, so he lent her some of his clothes, explaining that she wouldn't be stared at quite as much if she wore something that made her look normal. She didn't put up a fight, only shrugged and pulled on the outfit while Scorpius stood with his back turned, staring intently at a poster someone had pinned up on the wall.

"You keep sounding so apologetic," Avina said. "What are princesses like here?"

"It's just that in all the stories, princesses are either perfect or they're snippy and want everything done their way," Scorpius said, hoping his blush would fade by the time he could turn around.

Avina laughed. "Whoever writes your stories clearly doesn't understand what it means to be a princess. I'm a member of the royal family, so I have to be a scholar, a huntress, a diplomat, and nearly everything else a woman can be, even though I won't properly be a woman for some years yet. I know when to stand up for myself and demand what I want, but also when to go along with the customs of another place." She murmured something he couldn't quite catch and said, "These clothes are very comfortable. I'll have to try to introduce them at home."

Thinking that was his cue to turn, Scorpius did. Dressed in a sweater and trousers, she wasn't quite as striking as she had been in her gown. She still looked tough, but it was the sort of tough a Gryffindor might have rather than a warrior. She looked more like some long-lost cousin of his than a princess, and only her slight accent and sharp stride as they left the dormitory reminded him that she was royalty from a distant land rather than a girl from London.

They sat by one of the windows and watched the fish swim by, their light reflecting in the sunlight that filtered down from above and the green lamps along the walls. Scorpius tried to tell Avina about British history, but there was so much, and he didn't know where to start. He hadn't even learned all of the Muggle stuff, though Ruby had taught him about Admiral Nelson and the war against Napoleon. Avina told him some of the history of her land, but she seemed to have as much trouble, and they kept interrupting each other with questions like, "But what makes Russia so powerful?" and "Couldn't he have just used boats to cross the lake?"

They talked until the corridor opened again and students filled the common room, heading to the couches or just dropping off their bags before racing back out to go to the library or the lake or for a kissing session on the clock tower. There were at least a dozen conversations going on at once, and though most were ordinary complaints about professors and how much homework they had been assigned, Scorpius caught a few words about Professor Baumhauer and a magic show gone awry. Apparently, this was something that happened almost every year; the professor had ambitions exceeding his abilities, and whenever he tried something truly spectacular, it went rather wonky in some way, whether it was accidentally Summoning a Thestral to his room – which none of the students had been able to see, so they all assumed nothing had happened until the window broke open and two desks were overturned – or lighting one of the Christmas trees on fire, though since the fire had been a festive red and hadn't put anything else in danger, the faculty had left it up.

Scorpius spotted Margaret working her way through the crowd, with Albus in tow. He waved, and she gave a little wave back, though her attention was mostly on Avina. "Thanks for keeping her company," she said when she reached them. "I'm Margaret, and I'm pretty much in charge of this place. Well, there are a bunch of other Prefects, most of them older, but they're too busy with other things." She sighed and tugged on the end of her braid. "Anyway, the point is, if you need something, come to me. Zahradnik said you wanted to stay here, so you'll be camping out in my dormitory. You won't need to go to classes –"

"May I?" Avina asked. "I'd like to find out how magic works in Britain."

"Sure," Margaret said with a shrug. "Tag along with one of the boys here. You seem pretty friendly with Scorpius. I bet he wouldn't mind if you shadowed him. Anyway, I've got to run. Eli's been shirking again, and someone needs to put him in his place."

As Margaret headed out, grumbling something about revenge, Albus hopped up onto the window seat. "I told Ruby about the girl," Albus said. "I hope that's all right."

Avina frowned. "Ruby?"

"She's a friend of ours," Scorpius explained. "She'll probably ask you a lot of questions about your home, and I bet she'd be good at answering your questions about ours. There are different groups of students here, and she's in the group that likes to study and know everything."

"What group are you in?" Avina asked.

Scorpius faltered, but Albus managed to step in. "We're in the group that's ambitious and wants to do great things," he said. "There's a group for brave people, and a group for people who work hard." Turning to Scorpius, he said, "Ruby's waiting for us out by the lake. Come on! I don't want to make her wait too long."

Scorpius, Avina, and Albus set off for the lake at a run, and when they reached Ruby where she sat under a tree, she didn't look at all impatient. She had her homework spread out before her and was busily writing an essay. Given the length of parchment, it was probably for History of Magic, though Scorpius knew Ruby tended to go at least a few inches over the assigned length, sometimes as much as a whole foot. When the three of them dropped to the damp, cool grass beside her, she put her work away and smiled.

"I didn't know I'd make friends this easily at Hogwarts," she said. "It's a lot easier than my old school. I've got a friend in just about every house now."

There were introductions all around, since neither Albus nor Ruby had heard anything but rumors about Avina, and she didn't know a thing about either of them and only knew a little about Scorpius. They explained what it meant to be a wizard, and what it meant to be a Muggle, and what a Squib was. Avina listened attentively, sometimes breaking in to ask questions, which Ruby was always the first to answer. Scorpius had learned a fair bit about Hogwarts's history from his parents, but Ruby knew all sorts of details about the feud between Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor, and there were moments when Scorpius thought that she was going to get up and act out the story.

"And the two houses have been rivals ever since?" Avina asked as Ruby sat down, slightly breathless from having performed Salazar Slytherin storming away and then laughing about the monster he had left in the Chamber of Secrets. Scorpius was secretly sure that he hadn't acted quite so villainous, but he knew that if he interrupted her, Ruby would tell him that she was the one acting out the story, not him.

"It's a lot better than it used to be," Albus said. "There was a time when I might have been disowned for being in Slytherin, since both my mom and my dad came from Gryffindor families."

"That's terrible!" Avina said. "It isn't like you chose to be in Slytherin."

Albus shifted a little on the grass. "Actually, my dad asked not to be in Slytherin. That was how he wound up in Gryffindor."

"Still," Avina said. "It's unfair, and if times hadn't changed and I had any power in this place, I would have had some strong words for your family." Her cheeks were pink with indignation, and she went on, "It isn't as though there's anything bad about ambition. I've got ambitions, and I'm not as evil as that man. By the way, has someone killed that Basilisk yet? I'd have made sure someone took care of that ages ago."

"My dad did," Albus said, blushing a little. "It was about twenty-five years ago."

"Oh." Avina didn't seem at all miffed about having been wrong. "Well, good for him. Now, how does magic work around here?"

"You have to be a wizard to use it, or some kind of magical creature," Ruby said, "and you need a wand. You wave the wand around and say a spell, and the magic does what you want it to do."

Avina shifted and sat on her heels, no longer the vengeful princess but now an eager student. "Will you show me?"

"Sure." Ruby pulled out her wand and flicked it in the air. "_Wingardium Leviosa!" _Her bag rose a few inches off the ground and drifted there. Guiding it with her wand tip, Ruby made it rise and fall and float around the little group. Avina watched with a distant curiosity, and as soon as the bag had settled by Ruby's knee, she turned her attention to the wand.

"May I see that?" she asked, and when Ruby handed it over, Avina held the wand up to the light and began examining it.

"Does magic work differently where you come from?" Scorpius asked.

Avina nodded. "We don't need a focus, like this. There are gestures and incantations, but that's only for low magic. High magic, like the kind my family uses, just happens. But then, Essemeulia feels very different from Britain. I don't know how to explain it, except that the air here feels thinner than it does at home."

Ruby's eyes grew wide. "Maybe your world has magic everywhere in it. I didn't think that was possible, but… I have to write this down!" She scrambled for a piece of parchment and a quill, and Avina continued examining the wand, frowning and murmuring.


	8. Why She Left

Scorpius, Albus, Rose, and Avina had found a table in the library and were studying. Scorpius had been looking up the most advanced magic he could without delving into the Restricted Section, but so far he had found nothing even close to what Professor Baumhauer had been trying to do. Albus had gotten a book from Ruby about the history of the Middle East, and he would sometimes interrupt the rest of them to tell them some interesting fact about Muggle history. Ruby had a stack of Muggle newspapers beside her, along with a copy of _The Daily Prophet_. Avina was reading through their textbooks.

Scorpius was the first to notice the silver tiger padding silently through the stacks. "I'm glad I found you," Professor Zahradnik's voice said as the tiger opened its mouth. "Mr. Malfoy, Your Highness, if you two could come to my office. The Patronus will show you the way."

"Tell us everything," Ruby whispered as they left. Scorpius didn't have time to respond; the tiger was the largest he had ever seen and it had a quick pace. He and Avina were forced to run to keep up with it, and by the time they reached the golden staircase, both of them were out of breath.

"I wonder if she's found a way for me to go home," Avina said. Her cheeks were bright pink, and she looked almost ready to skip up the stairs and into Professor Zahradnik's office. Scorpius couldn't help but feel a bit sad that she might leave so soon. She had only been around a week, but he was already fond of her. She'd easily become part of their group, and the older Slytherins looked at her as kindly as they might a cat that had decided to stay with them a while.

"Do you think you'll be able to write letters to us or anything?" Scorpius asked. "I know you've only been here for a week, but I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too," she said. "And I'll try to write, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have, or even if the letters will reach the right place. I don't know how I got here to begin with."

"Maybe Professor Zahradnik can help," Scorpius said. "She said she specializes in this sort of thing, or at least her mentor did. I bet she'll figure something out."

Avina's smile didn't seem entirely cheerful, but by then they had reached the top of the staircase. The door was ajar, and they followed the tiger inside, closing the door behind them. The tiger vanished as soon as the door was shut, and Professor Zahradnik looked up from a pile of papers. She looked grave and gestured for them to sit down.

"Is something wrong, Professor?" Scorpius asked, shrinking back into his chair. Avina sat straight, as though her spine were made of metal.

"I'm afraid so," Professor Zahradnik said. "As soon as the two of you left my office, I wrote a letter to Inanna Loncar, my mentor. I won't bore the two of you with the details of what she sent back, but I will tell you this: Princess Avina lied to us."

Scorpius had been about to say that he wouldn't mind hearing the details, but as soon as he heard that Avina had lied, his attention turned to her. He wanted to say that it couldn't possibly be true, that Professor Zahradnik's mentor must be mistaken, but when he looked at Avina, he saw neither shock nor denial in her face. "Is that true?" he asked.

"It is," Avina said, "and I wish, Professor, that you hadn't brought Scorpius here."

"Why not?" Scorpius asked. "I thought we were friends."

"We are."

"Then don't I deserve to know the truth?"

"Friendship isn't about truth," Avina snapped, and in that moment he remembered how she had looked when she had first arrived: like a warrior. Even though she was dressed in clothes that made her look like nothing more than a normal eleven-year-old girl, even though she had laughed and talked with him and his friends, there was a part of her that would never be normal, at least not the sort of normal that belonged to this world. "It's about protection. You and Albus and Ruby… you wouldn't last a day in Essemeulia."

"I thought you said it was a beautiful place," Scorpius said.

"Beautiful and deadly. It's possible for the two to coexist."

"Why would you need to protect us?" Scorpius asked. "None of us ever planned to go there." His own research had just been from curiosity, though he might have tried the spells in a few years.

Avina said nothing.

"I think she wanted to protect you from what else was in Essemeulia," Professor Zahradnik said. "The people there have mastered a different sort of magic than we have on Earth, one that allows them to transport between worlds. Avina looks too young to be a true master, so she must have come by connecting to Axel's spell. Her arrival was no accident, though I doubt she knew where she would end up. Am I correct in my guess?"

Avina nodded, not looking at either of them.

"Why?" Scorpius asked. "You've kept talking about your home like you wanted to go back."

"I thought I had to protect you from knowing what was there," Avina said. "You have no idea what sort of danger can come through to this world."

"Telling them what sort of danger would be the best way to protect your friends," Professor Zahradnik said gently. "Better yet, you could have gone to me, or one of the other professors. If we know what to expect, then we'll know how to stop it."

Avina shook her head. "I don't think anyone here can stop it, not if you need a focus for your magic." Her nose wrinkled in distaste. "Especially not such a fragile focus as a twig. The strength needed for the spell would tear it apart in an instant. If someone here can focus their magic through stone, then you might stand a chance."

"And how would you focus your magic?" Professor Zahradnik asked. She sounded colder than before, but Avina didn't seem to notice.

"Through myself. That's how high magic works in Essemeulia."

Professor Zahradnik nodded and noted something down on a piece of parchment. "This explains a great deal. I've gone over the spell Axel used a dozen times, and if it hadn't been for you, it would have worked perfectly. Now that we know how you got here, it's time to focus on why. What would a princess want in another world, one she knew nothing about? Why would you abandon your people?"

"They don't need me," Avina said. "Belinha's the heir, not me, and if anything happens to her, she's already got a daughter and a husband who can remarry."

"So you left because you wouldn't have a chance of getting the throne?" Professor Zahradnik asked.

"No!" Avina shot up from her chair and slammed her hands against the desk, hard enough that one of the portraits shouted at her to keep it down. "I'm happy for Belinha and would never want to get in her way. If I wanted a throne, I could have married some other prince. There were more than enough asking my father to promise them my hand."

"Then why did you leave?" Professor Zahradnik didn't rise, and she didn't shout, but her voice grew strong enough that Scorpius almost wished he hadn't been invited along. There wasn't any further back he could shrink, and he could very much believe that the Headmistress had been a warrior during the Battle of Hogwarts nineteen years before. Even if she had a comfortable job now, there was a sharp light in her eyes that terrified him.

Avina stepped back as well, though when she spoke, Scorpius realized that it was from shame rather than fear. "I left because I was afraid," she murmured.

"Afraid of what?" Professor Zahradnik's voice grew gentler but no less firm.

"It's… I don't know what it is." Avina sank into her chair and spoke to her knees, though Scorpius heard every word clearly. "It came from someplace else, someplace far away, and it started devouring people. It leaves their bodies, but they're cold, like it's taken the life out of them. My sister and brother-in-law fought it, but they had to flee. I got separated from them, and I was trying to hide when I felt magic. I knew it was from another world, so I grabbed onto it and followed it. Then I wound up here."

"I see," Professor Zahradnik said. "I'll have a great deal of work to do, alongside Inanna. Is there anything else you can tell us about this creature, Avina? I need to make sure it doesn't follow you to this world."

Avina shook her head. "It didn't follow me through. I may not know how to travel on my own, but I know how to cover my tracks. If anyone tried to follow me, they'd wind up in the middle of nowhere, quite literally. If you get lost trying to travel, there's a vast plain of nothingness that can destroy anything." She raised her chin and looked Professor Zahradnik in the eye as though daring her to refute what she had just said.

"It may still reach our world," Professor Zahradnik said, "whether it follows you or it simply happens upon us. I need to find a way to protect this place."

"I was going to do that," Avina said. "I was studying how your magic works, and I think I can find a way to make it fit with my magic. I just need a little time." She bit her lip, then burst out, "Please don't make me leave! I miss my home, but it's too dangerous, and.. and I think I'm in love."

Professor Zahradnik lifted an eyebrow but said nothing. Scorpius felt as though his cheeks were turning bright red, and he was very glad that neither of them were looking at him. "I'll see what I can do," Professor Zahradnik said finally. "As long as your presence doesn't harm this world, you can stay. However, I'd like to work with you on how to protect this world. I mean no offense, but you're only eleven, and I'm not sure I would trust anyone but the best seventh years with such high-level magic."

"All right," Avina said.

"I'll also need to find a way to warn other worlds. Inanna will need to hear about this. If you have any knowledge on the best way to contact them, I'd be very grateful."

"I don't really know how to do that," Avina said. "Father was going to teach me when I was older and more mature." She wrinkled her nose again, and Scorpius suspected she thought she was exactly as mature as she needed to be to contact other worlds.

"We'll have to do it the old-fashioned way," Professor Zahradnik said. "You two run along, and I'll send for you if I need you again."

Avina got to her feet and headed for the door, but Scorpius hung back. "Um, Professor?"

"Yes, Malfoy?"

"Why did you ask me to come? I didn't really do much, and you could have talked to Avina on your own."

"She's more comfortable around you," the Headmistress said. "Now, go. I'm sure you've got homework to do, and I have several letters to write."

On the moving staircase, Avina turned to Scorpius and asked, "Will you do me a favor?"

"Anything," he said.

"Don't tell anyone that I said I'm in love. It's probably just a crush, and I might not even get to stay here."

"I won't say a word," Scorpius said, his cheeks growing hot again.

"Thank you," Avina said. With a wistful smile, she added, "It's those green eyes of his."


	9. In Love with a Fair Lady

Albus hadn't had a difficult life so far. Sure, he was the middle child and might sometimes get overlooked while sweet little Lily was coddled and troublemaker James was lectured, but his parents always found time for him. His Dursley cousins had made fun of his name, but he was close to all his cousins on the other side of the family, so he didn't mind as much. He had wound up in Slytherin, and James teased him every chance he got, but he had friends now, and even though Scorpius and Ruby were his best friends, he got along pretty well with other people in the house.

He hadn't expected that he would fall in love.

There was something about Avina that he couldn't quite get out of his mind. In borrowed clothes that about half the Slytherin first years had contributed to, she looked like any other eleven-year-old girl. She sat with him and Scorpius in class, went to meals with them, and even studied the same things they did, or at least, the things they were supposed to be studying. Scorpius and Ruby were usually a bit ahead of their classes, and Albus was easily distracted by the Muggle books Ruby's parents sent her from home. But Avina studied exactly what they were learning in class that day, and even though the professors didn't require her to do homework or to practice any of the spells they learned, Albus was sure she would have done well in any class she pleased.

But she wasn't just any other eleven-year-old. Every day there was something new she had to get used to, something that had to be explained. One morning it had been the owls flying in with packages and letters. Another she had been intrigued by the moving portraits and wouldn't be content until someone explained to her what sort of magic made them work. Newspapers, apparently, were unheard of in her kingdom, and so Albus and Scorpius spent a full breakfast telling her what they were used for.

Maybe it was that, he thought, staring at the book in front of him but not reading any of the words. Maybe he loved her because there was so much that she didn't know and because of her wide eyes when she learned something. Her eyes were gray, like storm clouds, and they held a bit of the danger of the thunderstorm. Maybe it was that danger that drew him to her. She could sweep him away with just a smile, and there was something exhilarating about that idea.

"Albus?" Ruby tapped his forehead with the end of her quill. "What are you thinking about, Albus?"

"Nothing," he said, turning a page.

He didn't need to look up to know that Ruby was grinning. "Come on, Albus. I know you, and you had that look."

He did look up this time. "What look?"

"That look that means there's something on your mind. One of my aunts is an actress and she taught me how to read people, so tell me what you're thinking about." Ruby tapped his forehead again. "Apparently it's more interesting than the Islamic world having a total control over science and math, and nothing's more interesting than that. Well, magic is, but that's only because it's magic, and the Islamic world during the medieval era is still definitely in the top ten."

"It isn't very important," he said, glancing at the chairs where Scorpius and Avina had been sitting. He wondered how long their meeting with Professor Zahradnik would be and whether the Headmistress had found a way to send Avina back. His stomach clenched at that thought, and he looked quickly back at the book. She couldn't leave, not yet. He hadn't told her how he felt about her. He hadn't had a chance. He hadn't even realized it until recently, but it had been building up inside him for a while, ever since he had realized there was something about her that didn't belong to this world.

"I'm going to figure out what's going on if I have to put it together piece by piece, though I'd rather you tell me on your own." She tapped her finger on the table, frowning. "It is something important to you, though. You're blushing."

Albus ducked his head, hoping it wasn't as true as it felt. He knew his cheeks were warm, but he hadn't thought he was blushing enough for Ruby to notice. But then, she would probably notice just about anything. If she had studied people with her aunt, then she might even be able to tell almost exactly what he was thinking. For all he knew, actresses could do that; he had only been to a few plays with Rose and Aunt Hermione, and the actors always seemed remarkable at seeming like real people.

"So, what is it?" Ruby asked, grinning. "Have you got a crush on someone?" Albus said nothing, but apparently he was blushing, for Ruby laughed. "Who is it? Not Sally Vane?"

"No," he said, shocked she would even consider that.

"Good. I don't know her, but if half of what Scorpius says is true, then I don't want to." Ruby frowned again, but the frown vanished almost at once into a smile. "I'm going to figure this out if it takes all day. Is she someone I know?"

After a moment, Albus nodded.

"Is she a Ravenclaw? Isabel Marant? Ari Fox?"

Albus shook his head. "I haven't met either of them."

"Hmm." Ruby tapped her chin with the quill this time. "You wouldn't have met her, then… it wouldn't be her… it _couldn't_ be her… oh." A new smile spread over her face, one of wonder and understanding. "It's Avina, isn't it?"

When Albus nodded, she laughed eagerly. "Don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Who would I tell?" Ruby asked. "Ravenclaw doesn't care, and my only other friend is Scorpius. He wouldn't laugh at you." She smiled a little, as though she had a secret, but Albus couldn't tell what it might be. "But I'll let you tell him."

"Thanks," Albus said. "It isn't that I don't want Scorpius to know." Although he did spend a lot of time around Avina, and it might end up being embarrassing for both of them. "It's just that I don't want Avina to find out."

"So, you're in love with a girl but you don't want her to ever know." Ruby shook her head. "You've got a lot to learn."

"I didn't say I wanted her to never know," Albus said. "I'm just not sure when I want to tell her. I want it to be the right moment."

"Huh. Maybe you know more than you let on."

Albus flipped another page of the book but didn't bother reading any of the words on the page. None of it interested him, although just a little while before he had been fascinated by it. "She might be going back to her kingdom today, though, and I won't have a chance to say it. I don't want to tell her just to have her leave."

Ruby reached across the table and ruffled his hair. It didn't muss as easily as James's did, but he still reached up and tried to smooth it out. "You're adorable, Albus."

"You don't need to act like you're my older sister," he muttered, crossing his arms. "We're in the same year."

"Yeah, but I turned twelve last week. Unless your birthday was in September, I am older than you. And since we get along so well, I guess we might as well be brother and sister." She paused for a moment, considering him. "I never got to have any siblings, and all my cousins are married with little kids now. You and Scorpius are the closest things I've had to brothers."

"Does that mean Avina's like your sister?"

"I guess so," Ruby said. "Anyway, when is your birthday? You are still eleven, right?"

Albus nodded. "It's not until June."

"I'll have to send you a card, then," she said. "My owl should be able to find your house, right? She's pretty smart."

"She'll find it," Albus said. "Why didn't you tell us about your birthday? We could have done something." According to James, it was really easy to break into the kitchens and get food from the house elves. He and Scorpius could have found a cake for her, or at least a nice pudding.

"It didn't seem very important," Ruby said with a shrug.

"It's important to us," Albus said. "We're your friends. We want to do nice things for you."

She smiled. "I'll tell you next year, if you promise to find out when Scorpius's birthday is. We're going to give him exactly the same birthday you would have given me."

"Deal."

They couldn't do any more planning, because at that moment, Scorpius and Avina returned. Albus perked up at once, but his heart sank when he saw how serious they looked. Ruby's smile vanished, and she asked, "What's wrong?"

"Do you want to tell them?" Scorpius asked, he sounded a little bitter, and Avina bit her lip.

"I suppose I ought to," she said. After looking around to make sure they were alone, she sat down and said, "There's something I didn't tell you. My coming here wasn't an accident. I wanted to escape from a monster that was destroying my home. Your Headmistress promised to help me protect this world." She lowered her eyes. "I wanted to keep this from you so you wouldn't be afraid."

"We can handle it," Ruby said, although Albus had to admit he wasn't so sure about what he could handle. Avina was a warrior, an oncoming storm, and if something could scare her, then it would be more than enough to scare him. "Is there any way we can help?"

Avina shook her head. "It would take very difficult magic. Your Headmistress doesn't even want me dealing with it, though I plan to." She raised her eyes, and Albus knew that it would take a great deal to keep her from doing what she wanted. She was young, but she was strong, and it was the sort of strength Albus had seen in pictures of the Order of the Phoenix.

"There has to be some way we can help," Ruby said.

Scorpius had been looking down at the table, but now he looked up and glanced around the table at all of them before meeting Avina's gaze. "You'll need friends. I know you think we need to be protected, but we're strong enough that we can handle anything. Albus's parents were warriors."

"That doesn't prove anything about him," Avina said. "I've known sons of warriors who turned into cowards, and sons of cowards who proved to be the best men I'd ever met."

Scorpius's cheeks flushed, but he spoke on. "I suppose friendship means something different here than it does in your world. It means protecting people, but it also means helping them and standing by them, no matter what. I'd do anything for any of my friends."

"You haven't even known me a month," Avina said. "How can you say that you'd do anything for me?"

"You were willing to protect us after you'd known us less than a month," Scorpius said. "Why should it be any different for us?"

"I was protecting everyone," Avina muttered, but she looked about to give in. "I lied to you, and if I did any part of my spell wrong, I may have put you in danger. Why would you want to help me after all that?"

Albus reached out and set his hand on top of hers. It didn't matter if it was the right time or not. It felt like the only time. "Because we love you," he said, and Avina's cheeks turned bright red as she took his hand in both of hers.


	10. Gryffindor Tower

Scorpius hadn't thought he could study more than he already was, but between helping Avina and trying to beat Rose in every class – though there were days when he was afraid the best he could do would be to become a very close second – he didn't have time to explore the castle with Albus and Ruby. They never abandoned him and Avina in the library, though; Albus stayed close to Avina for some reason, and Avina seemed very happy about that. Ruby had said that she didn't want to have any adventures alone, so she studied with them, even though it meant she wouldn't be the best Ravenclaw of her year.

"I wouldn't have been anyway," she told them one evening. "Isabel's a lot smarter than I am, and I heard she's working on mastering second year spells."

"Professor Zahradnik said that Rose was the best student, though," Scorpius said.

"I never said Isabel was a good student. She loves learning magic but hates homework. She's probably the only Ravenclaw who might get bad enough marks to retake her first year." Ruby yawned and stretched. "Well, this book is useless. Have any of you found anything yet?"

Scorpius shook his head, and Albus had already moved on to another book. Avina was muttering something under her breath, and when Scorpius leaned close enough to listen, he heard that she was saying over and over, "Nothing, nothing, nothing." With a groan, she closed the book and buried her face in her arms. Albus set a hand on her shoulder, and Scorpius looked back to his own book. It was in English, at least – Ruby had promised to handle any written in Latin, though a lot of the time she had to consult a Latin-English dictionary – but none of the words seemed to make sense. It was an old book, old enough that it had been hand-written, and whoever had written it had done it in a fancy cursive that was nice to look at but nearly impossible to read, and that was before he had to deal with all the _s_'s that looked like _f_'s and the words that were spelled differently from now.

"I can't handle much more of this," Albus said.

"All right." Scorpius closed his book and grabbed another. "Let's work on Transfiguration, then." He still had to turn a nail into a screw, which was far harder than Professor Osborne made it look. "Did any of you bring a nail?"

"I didn't mean looking up things to help Avina," Albus said. "I meant all of this. My head hurts, and I'm tired, and I think we missed dinner."

Scorpius's stomach growled, and he realized that he hadn't even noticed he hadn't eaten since lunch. "Go get something to eat, then," he said, opening the Transfiguration book and digging around for a nail inside his bag. "Ruby, Avina, you should go too. I'll be here when you're done."

"Do you want us to bring you anything back?" Avina asked as she got to her feet. She looked a little worried, but he supposed they all looked like that. "We could at least grab some bread and a bit of dessert."

Scorpius was about to thank her, but Albus shot to his feet. "No," he said, his voice sounding stronger than Scorpius had ever heard it. "You need a break, too."

"I don't have time for a break," Scorpius said. "I need to figure out how to turn a nail into a screw." So far, the best he could do was make a few notches in the nail's head and have a bit of uneven threading appear around the side. "Just sneak in some bread or something. I'll be fine."

"Albus is right," Ruby said. "We need to get out of the library." She grabbed Scorpius's arm and tugged him out of his seat. "You're going to eat dinner, and then we can come back. If no one's taken our books, then we can get right back to studying." She laughed a little. "This feels so weird. I mean, a Ravenclaw trying to convince a Slytherin to leave the library? That's got to be a first for this school."

"But what if someone takes our books?" Scorpius asked. He couldn't think who would want to take any of the books on Essemeulia or transdimensional travel; most of them had been so dusty that they couldn't have been touched for years. He wanted to hang on to the book on Transfiguration theory, though, since it was a lot more interesting than the _Standard Book of Spells, Grade One_. He was sure that one of the chapters would help him with the class.

"No one's going to take our books," Ruby said, dragging him out of the library. "No one even goes into that corner anymore. I was flipping through one of the books on those shelves, and I swear the author called for virgin blood to go in a potion. Those things are so dated that I can't imagine why they're still around. I'm pretty sure virgin's blood is discredited by most witches and wizards."

"Madam Pince goes back there," Scorpius said, and he shuddered. For the most part he wasn't afraid of people at Hogwarts, but the librarian managed to spook him no matter what. Ruby had once said that she looked just like a witch in a fairy tale, and after reading a few Grimms' fairy tales from one of Ruby's books, Scorpius had to agree. He wouldn't put it past Madam Pince to try to eat children if they destroyed one of her books. "What do you think she'll do if she finds out we just left books lying around instead of putting them away?"

"We'll just have to avoid her for a while," Ruby said. Her arm was firmly wrapped through his as they walked down the stairs, and she kept him tightly by her side so he couldn't wriggle away to study more.

"But I'll need those books," Scorpius said. "How am I supposed to get into the library for anything if I have to avoid the librarian?" He wondered why Avina wasn't speaking up to help him, but when he glanced over his shoulder, he saw that she and Albus were holding hands and whispering. Annoyed that neither of his friends was willing to stand up for him, he glared at Ruby. "I thought you wanted to help Avina get home and me beat Rose."

"You've got other friends than us, right?" Ruby asked. "Just ask them to check out books for you? Madam Pince doesn't need to know."

Scorpius gaped. "Ruby, that's… devious. I didn't know you thought like that."

Ruby grinned and tapped his nose with her finger. "Maybe I should be in Slytherin with you two, huh? Then I'd be able to figure out if that Sally Vane's as bad as you make her out to be."

Scorpius bit his lip and narrowly avoided a vanishing step. "But who would be able to check things out for me? A first year could get away with getting school books and things for Transfiguration, but I think it would look strange if I got someone to get a book about some world that only one person here's ever been to."

"Couldn't you ask a Prefect to get it for you?" Ruby asked. When Scorpius stared at her, she shrugged. "I made friends with the Ravenclaw Prefects. Didn't you do that?"

"Not really," he admitted. "Margaret's nice, but I don't think Eli would want to help very much. I don't know any of the other Prefects."

"Well, we'll figure something out," Ruby said. "If nothing else, you could sneak into the library. You'll have to be careful, but I think most of the ghosts will look the other way if you tell them you've got some noble cause. The Bloody Baron's surprisingly nice to people who say they're sneaking out to meet their secret lovers." When Scorpius gaped again, she laughed. "I snuck out a couple times and ran into him once. It was the only story I could think of, and he just gave me a sad look and floated off through a wall."

"I've got an idea," Albus said. Scorpius jumped; he hadn't realized the two of them had gotten so close to him and Ruby.

"Well, what is it?" Ruby asked. "Is it better than my plan of having Scorpius sneak out? I could always go if he doesn't like breaking rules that much."

"I heard you talking about asking someone to check out the books for us, and I got an idea," Albus said. "I would have said something before, but you kept talking, so I decided to wait."

"So, what's the plan?" Ruby asked. "Is it Polyjuice Potion? I might be able to get someone to make it for us. There's this girl, Marissa, and she makes potions for people for a little money. If we pool our Galleons, she ought to make that for us."

"It isn't that," Albus said. "I know who might be able to get away with checking out all sorts of books for us, but I'm not sure you'll like it."

Ruby frowned. "Who – oh. Albus, you're brilliant!" She spun around, nearly whipping Scorpius down the remaining three stairs. "You're wicked, but brilliant."

"Who are you talking about?" Scorpius asked.

"She's the only one who can get away with it," Albus said. "The only problem is in getting her to help."

Were they talking about some seventh year who could get them into the Restricted Section? Why hadn't they told him they knew a seventh year? "Why would it be difficult?" Scorpius asked, but as before, the two of them ignored him. Judging from Avina's face, she was just as confused as he was, but she went up the stairs with Albus without complaining.

"Are we going to see her right now?" Ruby asked. "Won't she be at dinner or out with her friends?"

"We can hang around and wait for her to get back," Albus said. "I'm sure she'll help me, but it's Scorpius I don't know about." He glanced back at Ruby. "I didn't know you knew her."

"We met in the library," Ruby said. "She's nice, but I've been too busy to hang out with her much. We're going to see a Quidditch game together once I get a break from all this studying." She patted Scorpius's arm as though he were her little brother. "It's not that I don't like studying," she said gently. "It's just that I haven't had a chance to see a Quidditch game yet."

Scorpius still wasn't sure where they were going or who they would meet, but whoever and wherever it was, it was up. The four of them trekked up the stairs, nearly to the top floor of Hogwarts, though it was difficult to do on empty stomachs. None of them complained; Avina bore it as a princess ought to, Ruby was too eager, and Albus had been the one to suggest they visit this person, so it wouldn't do him any good to complain. Scorpius hadn't wanted to go to dinner anyway, though he had been hoping to get a little food.

They went up to the seventh floor of the castle, to a place Scorpius had never been before. He had a sneaking suspicion that he knew where they were going, but he wasn't at all sure until they reached a large portrait of a fat lady who looked imperiously down at them.

"I'm not even going to assume that you four know the password," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"Albus," Scorpius said. "Why are we going to the Gryffindor common room?"

"We're going to see my cousin," Albus said. "We don't know the password, but Rose will, and she'll help us."

Scorpius pulled his arm from Ruby's and glared. He didn't like this at all.


	11. Rose

They only had to wait ten minutes for Rose to arrive, and she came racing down the hall, laughing, her arms filled with food. She was followed by a few older students, among them James Potter, who was eating a peach and talking to a girl who held what looked like at least a dozen bottles of butterbeer. When Rose caught sight of Albus, she let out a yell and ran to his side.

"What are you doing up here?" she asked.

"I came looking for you," he said. "I need your help."

"Oh?" She glanced down the row of people, looking over Avina, then Scorpius, and finally Ruby. "Well, this is interesting, isn't it? Come on. I'll make sure we get some good seats by the fire so we can talk."

"Wait a minute," James said. He wiped some peach juice from his chin onto the sleeve of his robe and stalked to the group. "They're not coming in."

"Ruby's been in the tower loads of times," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "Albus is your cousin, and that other girl, Avina, she's a princess. Do you really want to try telling royalty not to come in the Gryffindor common room?"

"She's not our royalty," James said. "And you didn't say anything about Malfoy. Why should I let him in?"

"Because he's my rival," Rose said, setting her hands on her hips. Scorpius was no less surprised than James, and for a moment, both were taken aback. It took James several seconds before he could bring himself to speak again.

"Isn't that all the more reason to keep him out?" James asked. "Or do you have a crush? Are you letting him in because you want him to be your boyfriend?"

Rose looked as though she was ready to slap him. "I don't know how you like to deal with your rivals, but I'm a proper Gryffindor, and I want to treat him honorably. If that means he gets to come in our common room, then so be it."

"Well, I won't have it," James said. "If you want to talk to Malfoy, you can do it out here."

"Fine." Rose sat down and started passing around food. The two best cupcakes went to Albus and Ruby, but Scorpius got a peach tart, and Avina got a chocolate éclair. Everything was delicious, and for the first few minutes they just sat and ate. The girl had left a few bottles of butterbeer, and they sipped at it. Ruby was amazed at the taste, and Scorpius supposed they didn't have butterbeer in the Muggle world. Once the food was gone, Rose asked, "So, what did you want?"

"I was hoping you could help us by checking out some books."

"Why can't you check them out yourself?"

"Madam Pince might be mad at us for not putting our books away," Scorpius said. "I didn't have time to before they dragged me off to get some dinner." He told Rose about their leaving the library, and how Albus had suddenly decided they ought to go to her for help. Rose listened and didn't once make fun of him, though once he had finished she started to laugh.

"You came up here instead of going back to the library? Albus, you could have gone on back and put the books away. You might still have time for that, and then you won't need my help."

"We wouldn't mind your help," Ruby said.

"Scorpius would. Besides, rivals don't work together." Rose got to her feet and picked up the empty butterbeer bottles. "If Pince gets mad at you, then you can come back to me and I'll help." She turned to the portrait of the fat lady, but then turned back. "Just out of curiosity, what kind of books do you want?"

"We've been looking at transdimensional travel a lot."

Rose squeaked and nearly dropped the bottles. "Transdimensional? Really? I didn't know the library had anything about that. Which books have you looked at so far?"

Albus started telling her the titles, and Scorpius stared in amazement. He wasn't sure how Rose could know anything about transdimensional travel; he hadn't heard anything about it until Ruby had started mentioning it, and even now that he'd been reading about it for days, he still wasn't sure he knew what it meant. Rose, however, was nodding in agreement with what Albus was saying and didn't look in the least bit confused. Either she was an excellent actress, or she really did know about transdimensional travel.

"I suppose I can help," she said after a moment. Her voice sounded cautious, but she smiled at Albus. "But only if Pince bans you from the library. Otherwise, you're on your own."

"But we might need you," Albus said. "You're the smartest person we know, and I don't want to go to any of the older students. I trust you." Albus got to his feet and shifted his weight from leg to leg. "We need to help Avina figure out how to protect our world." He started babbling, then, summing up everything that had happened. Rose listened, sometimes glancing at Avina, but for the most part she watched Albus.

"That does sound like a challenge," she said. "I'll help, but only if we can pretend I'm not helping Scorpius. I won't work with my rival." She smiled. "I'll do this for you and for Avina, and a little bit for Ruby. Oh, Ruby," she said, turning to her. "Are you free tomorrow? Hufflepuff versus Slytherin."

"Sure," Ruby said. "After breakfast?"

"It's a date," Rose said with a wink. Waving to the other three, she headed back to the portrait and said, "Golden wolf." The portrait swung open, and Scorpius got a brief glimpse of the Gryffindor common room. It was red and gold, and everything inside it looked warm and welcoming. He felt a brief pang of yearning, but then the portrait swung closed, blocking it from view.

They headed back to the library, and Scorpius found that their books hadn't been disturbed. Ruby was right; no one came back here at all, and when he glanced at the books on the shelves, he saw that they were covered in dust and their titles were peeling. Even Madam Pince hadn't been back there, and they settled into their chairs again. Albus had been right as well; taking a break had done wonders for Scorpius's attention. The food and chance to walk around a bit had relaxed him, and when he looked down at the Transfiguration book, the theory suddenly made sense. Hoping Madam Pince wouldn't suddenly appear, he pulled out a nail and muttered an incantation.

It wasn't perfect, but it did change. The grooves formed an X on the top of the nail, and there was definite threading on the length. He could practice again later, but right now he was sure he could best any other first year Slytherin. Rose Granger-Weasley might not even be able to beat it.

* * *

Rose Granger-Weasley was able to beat it. In his next Transfiguration class, Professor Osborne held up a screw and announced that there was a Gryffindor who had managed to perfect the spell. She even smiled as she said it, and Scorpius realized that she might have a favorite student, or at least one that she actually liked. That made two classes where she was better than him. He would have to study even harder.

There wasn't a great deal of time to study, though, what with trying to help Avina. Every night he went to bed exhausted, and though he woke in the mornings perfectly refreshed, all his energy seemed to drain away by the time he entered the library.

"You really ought to get some rest," Albus said one December evening. "You've nearly fallen asleep twice today."

"I'll go to bed in a few hours," Scorpius said. He tried and failed to hide a yawn, and Albus sighed.

"At least take a break," Albus said. "You've barely left the library all day."

It was Saturday, so he hadn't had to worry about classes. There hadn't been much reason to leave the library except for meals and trips to the bathroom down the hall. "I went to dinner not long ago. That's enough of a break."

"It isn't," Albus said. "You need a break. Tomorrow we're going outside, and you don't get a chance to go back into the library until you look more cheerful."

"But don't you want to help Avina?" Scorpius asked.

Albus glanced into the stacks, where Ruby and Avina were looking for another book. "We've been helping her for a month. I think we can get away with taking a day off. Even Avina might like to have some fun, and I want to get out for something other than a Quidditch game."

"All right," Scorpius said. "I'll take a day off tomorrow. I didn't know you liked Quidditch."

Albus shrugged. "It's all right. I mostly go because James is the Gryffindor Beater."

* * *

The next day, the grounds were covered in snow, and Albus wouldn't leave Scorpius alone until he was dressed up in his warmest clothes and outside. They were the first two people to get out into the fresh snow, and Albus raced out into the snow until it was up past his knees, laughing. His breath came out as mist, and Scorpius followed, hopping from footstep to footstep.

"You've got to do more than that," Albus said. "Come on. Avina's going to be out any minute, and I want to surprise her with snowballs."

"Surprise, suckers! We were here first!"

The words came mere seconds before a snowball hit Scorpius in the side of the head. It was packed hard enough to make him stumble, and he dropped to one knee, gasping as some of the snow slid down his collar. Then he was hurriedly packing snow into a ball, wondering why he could hear three girls giggling instead of the two he might have expected.

"How did you get out here?" Albus called. "I didn't see any tracks in the snow."

"I borrowed James's broom," Rose called. "I'm not a bad flyer, and I managed to get the three of us down here before you got out. From what Ruby told me, though, I thought you'd be up much earlier."

"Ruby, you traitor!" Albus yelled, but he sounded far too cheerful to mean it.

Scorpius looked up and saw a rough fort built out of snow, with three girls behind it. "This isn't fair!" he yelled. "We're outnumbered, and you've got an advantage."

"Life isn't fair, Scorpius!" Rose called. "And you're not outnumbered; Ruby hasn't got a very good arm."

"She can still make snowballs!" Albus yelled, and for that he got one right in the face. As he spluttered and wiped away what snow he could, Scorpius saw Avina preparing to launch her own attack. Dropping his own snowball, he scrambled to his feet and waded through the snow to reach Albus. Avina's first snowball clipped the top of his head, knocking off his hat, but Scorpius managed to avoid the second as he grabbed Albus and pulled him away.

"What are we going to do?" he asked. "They've got us beat already."

"Not a chance," Albus said. His cheeks and the tip of his nose were bright red from cold, and he laughed eagerly. "We're going to beat them if it takes us all day, and it won't."

"Can we beat them?" Scorpius asked.

Albus shook his head. "Rose doesn't give up, especially with snowball fights. She'll hunt us down even if she gets frostbite. The best we can do is give her a good fight." Albus grabbed Scorpius's arm and pulled him away from a barrage of snowballs. "Come on! It's about time you had some fun. I don't think I've seen you smile in weeks, and I kind of miss it."


	12. Astoria Malfoy

The rest of the term continued in the same way. Scorpius, Ruby, Avina, and Albus would bury themselves in books, but whenever there was fresh snow on the ground, Ruby and Albus would drag the other two out for a snowball fight, which Rose almost always joined in. The teams shifted constantly, but Scorpius and Rose were always on opposing sides, and he could never quite manage to beat her, although he was able to figure out some of her weaknesses. He also learned to pat snow onto his clothes for camouflage, something she couldn't do with her bright red hair.

The days went by faster, and it wasn't long before everyone was packing up to go home for Christmas. Ruby would be going home, of course, and so would Albus. Scorpius's parents had written to ask him to come back, and Avina insisted that she would be fine on her own. Margaret was staying, so she wouldn't be completely alone, and she'd get a chance to work with Professor Zahradnik on some of the more difficult magic. Scorpius's nervousness about going back wasn't about leaving Avina behind, though; he was afraid that he had somehow done something to make his parents less proud of him, and that the holiday would be awkward and silent.

"I'll see if I can get Aunt Hermione to help," Albus said as they took the train back to King's Cross. "Rose is probably going to tell her, but I'll ask anyway. I want to be useful, even if we're nowhere near the school."

"I wish I could do something to help," Scorpius said.

"Don't worry," Albus told him. "I'll write you everything I find out, and you can write me back with ideas. Besides, it's been two weeks since you've taken a break. You need some rest."

Rest did sound like a good idea. Albus and Scorpius played a few games of Exploding Snap on the way back, but neither was very good, so they gave up quickly. They had some sweets, and Albus left near the end of the ride to visit Rose and Ruby. Once he was alone, Scorpius curled up on the seat and used a sweater as a pillow. He only meant to doze off for a bit, but he woke to Ruby knocking on the door of his compartment and calling for him to get up before the train left the station with him still there. Yawning, he gathered his things and stumbled after her into the snowy afternoon.

For the most part, everyone had already left, but there were still a few people on the platform. Even through the snow, Scorpius recognized his mother, and she met him by the door and gave him a hug, which he returned with one arm.

"Where's Dad?" he asked as they walked out to the car.

"He had to stay late at work," his mother said. "There's been an influenza outbreak, and a lot of people have had to go to St. Mungo's. He'll be home in time for dinner, though, and I've made him promise to take Christmas off to spend with us."

They reached the car, and Astoria tossed the trunk into the back. Even though she only worked part-time for the Ministry, they still let her use a car to drive to and from King's Cross. It was a comfortable little thing, and easy for her to drive, though it wasn't nearly as flashy as some of the Muggle cars Scorpius had seen around.

"Scorpius," she called as she headed to the driver's side. "Do you want to ride up front with me?"

She didn't have to ask twice before he had pulled open the passenger's side door and leapt into the seat. He had never had a chance to ride up front, since his father had always said he was too young, and his mother laughed when she saw his eagerness. She started the car, and at once a blast of hot air burst from the vents in front of him, melting the snowflakes in his hair and warming his chilled nose and fingers. Astoria headed out onto the road, and they drove to Malfoy Manor.

"Mom?" Scorpius asked as she slipped carefully between two other cars. "Do you think Dad's disappointed that I ended up in Slytherin?"

"Not at all," she said, and though she didn't take her eyes off the road, her voice was enough to reassure him. "He's very proud of you, Scorpius. Why would you think otherwise?"

He shrugged and bit his lip. "It's just that… Dad always seems to regret something he did, and I thought it was something he did because he was in Slytherin. Everyone talks about the house like it's a bad place, and I was just worried that you would want me to be in Ravenclaw."

"We'd be happy no matter where you ended up," Astoria said. "Your father's past is complicated, and someday he'll explain it to you, but I'm not sure you'd be able to understand all of it right now." Someone swerved in front of their car, and she cursed under her breath. "So," she said, her voice still a bit tense, "I hear you've got a rivalry with a certain Miss Granger-Weasley. How's that been going?"

"Not so well," Scorpius admitted. "She's better than me in just about everything. I'm only second-best."

"There's no shame in coming second," his mother said. When he didn't respond, she asked, "How many children are in your year?"

"I don't know," he said. "I didn't count."

"You're beating all of them but one. That means you've got even the Ravenclaws beat, and that's something to be proud of." She glanced away from the road to give him a quick smile, which he returned. "You said 'just about everything'. Is there something you're doing better than her in?"

"Charms," Scorpius said. "I'm really good at Charms."

The rest of the ride passed in pleasant conversation. They'd hired a new house-elf, and Astoria had time to do a little more work with the Ministry. She'd been getting along with Hermione Granger, especially since this generation of the Malfoy family was known – at least in Granger's department – for being kind to their house-elves. Sometimes Scorpius dozed off in the middle of one of his mother's sentences, and he would wake either a few seconds later to find her still talking or a few minutes later to find her silent. When they got home, she sent him to the kitchen for some hot chocolate and then told him to head up to bed. He was too tired to argue, and as soon as he had laid his head on his pillow, he was asleep.

* * *

When Scorpius woke, it was dark and he was hungry. Rubbing his eyes to get them to stop feeling so heavy, he stumbled downstairs, stopping just outside the kitchen when he heard voices coming from inside. His father must have come home while he was asleep, and his breath caught in his throat when he realized his parents were talking about him.

"He was just so pale when he came back," his mother said.

"He's got my coloring, Astoria. He's always been pale." His father sounded as though he was trying to make a joke but couldn't quite summon up enough humor.

"You know what I mean, Draco. He looks thinner, too. I think something's been worrying him."

"Do you know what it is?"

There was a moment of silence, of hesitation, then his mother said, "On the ride back, he asked whether you were disappointed that he had ended up in Slytherin. He said that he thought you regretted something about being in that house." Silence again, but this time it was more tense. "Draco?"

"I'm all right," his father said. "It's just been a long day. Has Pascal finished making dinner?"

"Nearly. Why don't you head upstairs and fetch Scorpius?"

"I'm sure he'd rather you do it. Scorpius and I have never been exactly close." There was another moment of silence, then he said, "All right. I love you, my star."

"And I love you, my dragon."

Scorpius started to back up the stairs, but then the door opened, and he saw his father. He did look as though he'd had a long day at work, but then he smiled. "It's good to have you home."

* * *

It was good to be home. Scorpius got to know the new elf – Bernoulli – and listened to his mother's talks about various Muggle mathematicians. For some reason, mathematics fascinated her, and she said she was considering starting night classes for adult witches and wizards in Arithmancy combined with Muggle mathematics.

"Our worlds are getting closer and closer by the year," she said. "I think it's only right to take advantage of what they have to offer, and perhaps consider bending the Statute of Secrecy a little. We can't always live like it's the Middle Ages."

Scorpius's father found out about his friendship with Albus Potter when a letter arrived and the Potter family owl brought it to Draco. Scorpius grabbed the letter from his father and started babbling about how Albus had ended up in Slytherin and they had only accidentally become friends, and now they had to work together to help a princess get back to her home by studying transdimensional travel. Draco said nothing, but smiled in a strange way that seemed almost sad before going back to his breakfast.

Draco did get Christmas off, and it was a more cheerful holiday than Scorpius had ever remembered. The tree was decked out in silver, and the house-elves were surreptitiously given some fine fabrics to make robes for themselves. Apparently that didn't count as giving them clothes, since they were still there after making their robes, and Astoria just laughed and explained it away as a loophole.

There weren't a great many presents under the tree. The Malfoy grandparents sent over a very politely-worded letter that was read once and then tossed on the fire. The Greengrass grandparents, however, sent over gifts for everyone. Scorpius got a green and silver scarf with matching gloves, Astoria got some emerald earrings, and Draco got a book about some rare disease. He said it was touching, but Astoria smiled and said her parents were only remarkably good guessers.

They had presents for each other, too. Scorpius had saved up to buy his parents a set of self-cleaning napkins, which Astoria promised to use for their next fine dinner. Draco had gotten Astoria tickets to a mathematical conference in Dresden, and she whispered that she would show him his present later. Scorpius only had one gift from them, but when he opened it, he sprang to his feet and hugged them both.

It was a book on transdimensional travel, bought from what must have been a Muggle store.

That night, after Christmas dinner had ended and they had drunk all the hot chocolate Pascal had made, along with eating gingerbread and peppermint humbugs – one of which was still humming away inside Scorpius's stomach – he crept up to his room and began opening the cards from his friends. Albus had sent him a card so full of information he had learned from his aunt that there was barely room for a Christmas greeting. Ruby had sent him a Muggle card, complete with glitter on the elves. It was a little strange to see them so still, but it played a little tune when he opened it, and he propped it up beside his pillow. Avina had sent him a long letter, but he was too tired to read it and set it aside for the next morning.

Even Rose had sent him a card, with a green snake wearing a red hat and a fake beard. _See you soon, Scorpius! _it read inside. _I hope you haven't gotten lazy over the holidays, or beating you will be no fun._


	13. Back to Hogwarts

The rest of the holiday was relatively quiet, and before Scorpius knew it, it was time for him to head back to school. He packed up his things, making sure to put the book on transdimensional travel in his trunk – Albus had heard about it and insisted that he bring it back to school – and wrapping the green scarf around his neck. It was Astoria's turn to make the yearly visit to the Malfoy grandparents, so Draco drove Scorpius back to King's Cross. Scorpius had only met his grandparents once, and they frightened him. Both Lucius and Narcissa had the same sort of regretful look that Draco did, and though it felt as if they tried to be close to their son, there was something hanging between them that Scorpius could never quite figure out. Over the years, apparently, they had drifted apart, and now Draco only went to see them once every two years.

The ride to King's Cross was mostly silent. Draco didn't have the same habit of swearing under his breath that Astoria did, nor did he sing quietly with the radio whenever a song from his teen years happened to come on. Instead, he listened to the news, most of which wasn't terribly interesting. The Ministry of Magic had mediocre approval from wizards across Britain, Poland was looking to enter the next World Cup, and there were rumors of a dark wizard trying to gain power in Germany. There had been so many attempts at new dark wizards after Voldemort's defeat that no one was really frightened, and Scorpius even smiled a little at some of the nicknames the radio announcers were giving this one.

Draco noticed his smile, and he shook his head, though not in a disapproving way. "They aren't even trying this time," he said. "The best name I've heard so far is 'Grindlewhat', and that wasn't particularly clever. Now, that one calling himself Crake, that one got a lot of good nicknames."

"Crake?"

"That's right, you were too young. You would have been about four when it broke on the news. People had only just stopped being scared of all these would-be dark wizards, so the radio people had lots of fresh material. They called him Crake the Crank, and Birdbrain."

Scorpius had been looking out the window, but now he turned to his father. "Why Birdbrain?"

His father smiled again, and though it was wistful, at least it was a smile. "There's a type of bird called the crake. It's not a very interesting bird, so I don't know why he chose it."

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

Scorpius wasn't sure what he would say next. This was the first time his father had said anything about a dark wizard, Scorpius didn't want to ruin it, but he did want to know what had happened. Why had he worked for Voldemort? What had made him turn away? What about his mother? The questions rose and died in his mind, and when Draco took his eyes off the road for a split second to see whether Scorpius was all right, he blurted, "Are you really proud of me, even though I'm in Slytherin?"

Draco turned his attention back to the road. "Your mother told me you were worried about that," he said. "You're doing well in your classes, and you've made some friends. You even made friends with a Potter, which is something I probably should have done at your age." He turned, and King's Cross came into sight. "It doesn't matter to us which house you ended up in so long as you use your abilities in the best way you can."

As his father found a parking space, Scorpius bit his lip. "What if I made friends with a Muggle-born?" he asked. "Would you still be proud of me then?"

"Of course we would," he said, "or at least we'd try to be. Things were different when your mother and I went to school, or at least they were for Slytherins, but we've tried to change." He opened the door, and they stepped out of the car. No snow had fallen for the past few days, and what was already on the ground had turned brown and slushy. "Have you made friends with a Muggle-born?"

Scorpius nodded. "Her name's Ruby."

"I'd like to meet her someday."

Draco got the trunk out of the back and carried it to the station, despite Scorpius insisting he could do so himself. Draco just said that it was something fathers ought to do, at least during the first year, and when they reached the train, he stopped to give Scorpius a hug.

"Write to us as often as you can," he said. "I'll tell your mother not to put too much mathematics in her letters, but you know how she is."

"I wouldn't mind," Scorpius said.

"I doubt you'd understand half of what she puts in there."

Scorpius was about to head onto the train when he heard someone calling his name. A few seconds later, Albus burst out of the crowd, dragging a trunk behind him. "I wanted to find you so we could get a compartment together," he said breathlessly. "I can't find Ruby anywhere, but she might be with Rose. Do you want to find them now, or we could wait for the feast…" His voice trailed off when he saw Draco, and he glanced down at the ground. "Hello, Mr. Malfoy."

"You must be Albus," Draco said, and he held out his hand. Albus shook it tentatively and nodded. "Scorpius told me what you have been trying to do, and I gave him something that I think ought to help."

Albus's eyes lit up, but he still stood close to his trunk, looking as though he wanted nothing more than to pick it up and hurry onto the train. "Thank you," he said. Before the situation could get any more awkward, Scorpius picked up his trunk and headed off, glancing back to wave at his father and make sure Albus was right behind him.

"I didn't know you would talk that much," Scorpius said once they were on the train. There was an empty compartment in the back, and they settled in just before it started to move. "The first time I met you, you were really quiet."

"The first time you met me, I was scared out of my mind," Albus said. He pulled off his thick coat and set it on the seat next to him, revealing a bright green sweater with a silver A stitched on it. Seeing that it had caught Scorpius's attention, he said, "Grandma Molly makes these every year. I guess she decided mine could stay green, since I'm in Slytherin. Is that why you've got the scarf and gloves?"

"Yeah," Scorpius said, unwinding his scarf. It was warmer in the train, warm enough that he didn't need it wrapped quite so tightly. "My grandparents got these for me."

"Oh, and Grandma Molly gave me these." Albus dug into his coat and pulled out a brown paper bag. When he opened it, the compartment filled with the smell of cookies. "She gave some to all of us, and I bet Rose is sharing hers with Ruby, so these can be ours."

They passed the bag back and forth, and from the first bite, Scorpius knew that these were the best cookies he'd ever tasted. "I've got something to show you, too," he said through a mouthful of something sweet and full of cinnamon. He swallowed, stuck the other half of the cookie between his teeth so he could use both hands, and dug the book out of his trunk. A sock came with it too, but he stuffed it back inside and handed the book to Albus.

"_Transdimensional Theory for Beginners,_" he whispered, opening the book. The spine crackled, and Albus grinned, shoving aside the bag of cookies. "This is great! Is this what your dad was talking about?"

"Yeah. He and my mom got it, and I think they went to a Muggle store." Scorpius's cheeks grew warm, and he couldn't tell if it was from pride or embarrassment.

"Wow," Albus whispered. "There's stuff in here none of the books in the library even mention, and I don't have to figure out any of those Latin words they'd stick in to sound clever. Ruby's going to love this."

"Do you think we should let Rose borrow it?" Scorpius asked.

Albus laughed. "Rose would probably try to steal it. I'll make sure she only gets it when I'm around."

Once the book had been flipped through a few times, Albus's attention returned to the bag of cookies. Scorpius insisted on treating him to some sweets from the woman with the trolley, and by the time they reached Hogwarts, they were nearly too full for the feast.

"You look better," Albus said as they got off the train and followed the older students to where a group of horseless carriages sat. Scorpius had heard rumors that the carriages ran by magic, or there were invisible students pulling them, or demons made them roll across the ground. Whichever it was, he felt a bit nervous, but when he climbed in, the carriage felt as safe as anything, if rather colder than the train.

"Better?"

"You know, than before. You look like you've actually been getting some sleep."

"I haven't had much of a chance to study at home," he said. That, and the house-elves would insist on pulling him down to the dining room or sending him to bed. They meant well, but what had been amusing when he was a little boy felt annoying now that he was nearly a teenager.

They were joined a moment later by Ruby, and Rose took one look inside the carriage before racing off to find somewhere else. There was no malice in it, and Rose had even shot him a smile. It was the way rivals were supposed to act, he guessed. If they had a common cause, like helping someone, they could get along, but otherwise they would only interact when fighting. He didn't mind much that she was going to find somewhere else to sit; he preferred to be with just Albus and Ruby, the two people he had known since his first day.

The ride back was bumpy, and the three huddled together to keep warm while they talked about their vacations. Ruby had gone home and gotten a lot of books and a lecture from her mother about the origins of Christmas in the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. Apparently her mother had been interested in myths and magic long before knowing her daughter was a witch, and learning that had only increased her fascination. Albus had spent his holiday with his large family at his grandparents' house, where he'd had to share a room with James and his cousin Hugo. Scorpius deliberately saved his for last, and when he brought up _Transdimensional Theory for Beginners_. Ruby acted exactly as he had thought he would; her blue eyes lit up, and she flung her arms around Scorpius in a hug before begging him to let her read it.

"Next time we're in the library," he said, and she forced him to shake hands on the promise. All the rest of the way she chattered about what they were going to do, and she was still talking when they parted to go to their tables for the welcoming back feast.

"I think this place throws a feast for everything," Albus said, to which a seventh year said that he wasn't far off.

Despite all they'd eaten on the train, Scorpius and Albus managed to find room for a little food, along with some pomegranate seeds for dessert. Neither had the energy to unpack more than their pajamas before falling asleep, and Scorpius smiled with excitement.

He would be back in the library very soon.


	14. Leaving

Scorpius didn't go to the library. The day after they returned, Albus dragged him out of the castle and down to the lake. It was freezing cold and frozen over, and the wind blowing across the ice seemed to cut into him, despite his scarf and coat. Despite the weather, Avina and Ruby stood on the shore, arguing. As he and Albus drew closer, Scorpius heard Avina say, "It's my duty."

"You don't need a duty!" Ruby cried. "You're eleven! You ought to be trying to see how far you can skate across the lake!"

"You're not serious?" Albus asked, his eyes going wide. "I was going to take you out on a date."

"What's going on?" Scorpius asked when he reached them. He wasn't at all sure where he wanted the explanations to begin. He hadn't heard anyone his age talk about duty; only his father did, late at night when it was just him and Astoria and a bottle of wine. He wasn't sure what the duty could be that Ruby was so against it, and apparently Albus knew, too, and also had a crush on Avina. Scorpius couldn't help feeling like he'd been left out of quite a lot, but Ruby answered him so quickly that he didn't have time to feel bitter.

"Avina's going to leave."

"What? No!" Scorpius ran the last few steps to her side, stumbling slightly on the frozen snow. "You can't leave. We were still going to help you figure out the spells. I just got a new book for Christmas."

Avina smiled sadly. "It's like I told Ruby: I have a duty. I was frightened, but I need to go back. I'm still their princess, and a member of the royal family shouldn't be a coward." She lifted her chin, and Scorpius remembered that she wasn't just some eleven-year-old girl who had wandered into their world. She was a princess and a warrior, and not someone that the rest of them needed to protect. "If my sister's dead, then the throne falls to me."

"What about that thing that was there?" Scorpius asked. "You can't just go back to that. You'll be killed."

She bit her lower lip and nodded. "I know. There's a chance I won't be, though. I've been studying with the professors who were still here, and they taught me some magic that ought to help. Professor Longbottom even gave me some leaves that will keep me safe." She opened a little pouch at her waist and showed them a bundle of light green leaves with blue veins.

"All the professors think you ought to go back?" Albus asked.

"How could they?" Ruby looked ready to snap at any professor who dared wander past. "You're just a kid! They shouldn't make you go back there."

"They feel the same way you do," Avina said. "They tried to talk me out of it, but I wouldn't be persuaded. It took two weeks to get them to agree, and I don't have time to argue with you now, so please just trust me." She paused, again the eleven-year-old girl they had come to know, and looked each one of them in the eye. "I can do this."

Scorpius wanted to grab her arm and hold on so tightly that it would be impossible for her to leave, and Ruby was shaking her head so hard the beaded ponytail holders at the ends of her braids hit each other with hollow, plastic sounds. Albus was the only one of them to step forward, and it wasn't to object. Instead, he took Avina's hand and said, "I trust you." When Avina smiled, he leaned forward and kissed her quickly on the lips. When he stepped back, both of them were blushing.

"Thank you, Albus," she said, releasing his hand. "I won't forget you."

"I won't forget you, either."

Ruby's cheeks were bright red, and she let out her breath in an angry huff, though the cloud made it seem rather less angry. "Why did you say that you didn't have time to argue with us now?" she asked. "Does the magic have to be done at a specific time?"

Avina nodded. "That's how it works in Essemeulia. Simple magic can be done just about any time, but more complicated magic, like this, needs certain things to work. I learned a simple spell to bring me home, and my father said it would work no matter where I was, so long as I had ice and it was the start of a new year. I only hope I haven't put this off for too long."

"The year's only just started," Ruby said. "How close to the beginning do you need it to be?"

"I don't know," Avina said. "I'll find out soon enough, though."

She was about to step out onto the ice when Scorpius said, "Wait." When she stopped and looked back at him, he asked, "Were you really going to leave before I had a chance to say good-bye?"

Avina smiled sadly. "I've never been very good at those," she said. "I thought things might be easier if I could just vanish."

"They won't be," Scorpius said. He wasn't sure if he could tell her how it would feel, but he knew there would be a hole inside him, and he would always wonder why she had left so suddenly and whether she had cared about them at all. He'd miss her more than anything, and Albus would miss her more than that. They'd be a trio again, and it would feel strange for weeks to have an empty chair at a corner of a table in the library.

"You're right," Avina said. "I'd always be worried that you would hate me for it."

"We couldn't hate you," Albus said, but his voice was small, and even when he stepped out to the edge of the ice, no one answered him. Instead, Avina gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before walking out onto the lake.

The ice didn't crack beneath her feet as Scorpius had feared it would. Instead, it remained as strong and stable as the floor of the Great Hall, and she walked out until she was nothing but a figure no taller than his finger. It took looker than he had thought for her to stop, and then she raised her arms up to the sky. She was probably saying something, but he was too far away to hear her voice, and the wind was whipping past his ears so strongly that even Ruby would have had to shout something to get him to hear it. A small, selfish part of him wished for this whole thing to be over; his feet were getting cold, and his nose was running from the chill.

Then she was gone, and it was just the two of them standing by the lake.

It took Scorpius a moment to realize what was wrong, and by the time he had, Ruby had started shouting for Albus. She ran down to the very edge, right where he had been standing, and bent down to look for something, but there was no sign of him. It was like he had simply vanished into thin air. For all Scorpius knew, he had.

"Scorpius!" Ruby shouted. "Get down here and help me!" Her clothes were dusted all over with snow, and Scorpius wondered why his thoughts felt so cold and distant. His best friend was gone; surely he ought to feel something aside from this desire to slip into the snow and hide there until Albus came back and dug him out.

"He's gone," he said, and though he thought the wind was too strong for anyone to hear him, Ruby had very good ears.

"I know he's gone! Get over here and help me look for clues! There has to be something I can find."

Scorpius shook his head. Albus had vanished as completely as Avina. He hadn't fallen into the lake, or through a snowdrift, and the only thing he could think of was that the spell had got him, too. "Was he standing on the ice?"

"What sort of question is that?" Ruby asked, but she stepped out onto the lake anyway. "Yeah, I think he was. He kicked some snow down here, and these must be his boot prints." She looked up, her skin turning a lighter shade of brown. "You don't suppose Avina's spell…"

Scorpius nodded. He didn't want to say anything. Ruby was the Ravenclaw, and she could figure everything out.

"He'll be in Essemeulia by now," she said, climbing up the shore and joining Scorpius. "Maybe Avina can send him back, or someone else will know a spell to get him here. We just have to wait."

If there was anyone left in the kingdom. Scorpius didn't feel like saying that to her. He didn't want Ruby to start crying, because then he wasn't sure what he would do. He didn't even know what to do now, while she was handling everything perfectly well. He just decided to follow her example. When she sat down in the snow, he sat down beside her, and they waited, though the snow was soaking through his clothes and chilling his legs.

With the clouds overhead, he lost all track of time. It was at least several minutes but probably no more than an hour when Ruby said, "I don't know if he's coming back."

"He will," Scorpius said. "We just have to wait." The insides of his nose and chest felt frozen, and he coughed whenever he took a deep breath.

Ruby shook her head. "What are we going to tell Rose? He's her favorite cousin, and I think she likes him even more than she likes her own brother. This is going to tear her apart."

At the mention of James, Scorpius groaned and buried his head in his hands.

"What's the matter?" Ruby asked, setting a hand on his shoulder. "I didn't know you cared about Rose that much."

"It's not that," he said, although he didn't want to see Rose distressed. Any victory over her then would feel hollow. "It's her brother. James is going to kill me."

"Why do you care about what James thinks?"

Scorpius looked up and tried to blink away his tears before Ruby saw them. "It isn't that," he said fiercely. "It's that I'm a Malfoy and I'm in Slytherin. He hates me, and I'm part of the reason his little brother's gone." Even if James hated Slytherins, he couldn't hate them so much to hate his own brother along with them.

"It isn't your fault," Ruby said. "You didn't even know what was happening until an hour ago. James can't blame you for that."

"Do you really think he'll care about what I knew or didn't know?" Scorpius sniffled and pulled his knees up to his chest. It was too cold outside, and there was still no sign of Albus.

"You're right," Ruby said, and she grabbed his elbow, hauling him to his feet. "Come on. Let's get inside before you get frostbite."

"We have to wait for Albus," Scorpius said, but Ruby shook her head and pulled him up to the castle.

"You're pale enough already without getting even colder," she said. "Besides, when Albus does get back, don't you want him to see you not hypothermic?"

Since Albus was the one who had bugged Scorpius to get out of the library, he supposed she was right, though he did wish he could make his own decisions, even if those decisions led to frostbite. Every few steps back, he glanced over his shoulder, just in case either Albus or Avina would appear, but the lake was always empty, nothing but an expanse of ice that stretched out farther than Scorpius could see until it melded with the gray-white, clouded horizon. No one appeared, not even when they reached the castle.


	15. Essemeulia

Albus had never felt prouder of anyone. The spell had worked. Avina had made it back to her world. The only problem was that he had gone there as well.

It was really a beautiful world, although it felt empty and desolate. There were towering buildings and wide streets that looked as though they should have been filled with hundreds of people, but no one was there. Albus shivered as he walked through the streets, looking around for someone to help him. There had to be someone here. Maybe Avina would find him and send him back to Hogwarts.

There was no sign of Avina. It was as though she had vanished, or perhaps she had gone to some other place and the spell had only brought him here. It could be her world, or it could be someplace completely different. Either way, he was terrified. If it was her world, then she had ended up someplace where she didn't belong. If it wasn't, then he didn't have any idea of where he was, and it was possible that this place didn't know anything about transdimensional theory. It might not even have magic.

Wherever it was, it was certainly abandoned. The only sound came from his feet against the road. There weren't even any animals, and from what Uncle Charlie had told him, abandoned cities were usually full of plants and animals finding their little niches. _Life always finds a way_, he liked to say, and Albus whispered that to himself, although the quiet made him shudder and decide not to speak again. _No matter what's happened to a place, there'll be something alive there, and it'll cling to whatever it can. Even if it takes hundreds or thousands of years, life will survive. It's pretty wonderful that way._

Albus wondered what Uncle Charlie would think of this place. He would probably end up racing around, trying to find something new to explore, but then, he'd been a Gryffindor, like every other Weasley. Albus was the one to stand out from their family by being a Slytherin.

Now he was the first of his family to travel to another world, and he wasn't about to go back and say that he'd been too afraid to do anything.

Heartened by his decision, Albus went down to one knee to look at the street. It wasn't asphalt, as he had expected, but something smooth almost to the point of being slick. The sun had made it warm to his touch, although he hadn't expected it to be quite so warm; the air around him was cool enough that he still needed his coat, although he was able to pull off his gloves for a few minutes to touch the street again. It was nearly as warm as his skin, and he wondered what sort of power it might have. It couldn't be electricity; there weren't any wires or batteries. Of course, this world might be a bit different and have a way of getting electricity from the air or the sun.

He shot to his feet, remembering Aunt Hermione trying to explain something to his grandfather Arnold. His grandfather was fascinated with electricity, and Aunt Hermione had been telling him that Muggles had a way of getting it from wind and sunlight now, and that a lot of them used it. Even her house did, since she had insisted on setting up solar panels, despite the fact that, with all the magic she and Uncle Ron used, the electrical appliances were always malfunctioning.

Now that he had things to look for, Albus found so much more than he had ever expected. The walks at the edges of the streets were cooler, but only slightly, and the material was gently springy, though when he at first touched it, his fingers clung to the surface. It looked to be the same material as the buildings were made out of, but only the first few floors. Above that, there were large windows that reflected the pale blue sky and had shining metal between them. Some of the metal was bronze, but there was also copper, gold, and a few rare pieces of silver. A few of the windows were tinted, making the sky seem purple or green, and the light fell onto the pale walks, turning the city into a desolate wonderland. Albus thought he might even grow to love it if he had to stay.

Of course, he didn't want to stay, no matter how beautiful the abstract sculptures above him were. After a moment, he realized they weren't sculptures at all but walkways between the buildings. The strange antennae sticking up from the roofs could be airship docks, although there weren't any airships around, and perhaps at one time the sky was filled with balloons and kites. Or maybe people walked everywhere, or maybe they had cars. It was impossible to tell with no one to ask and no remains of any vehicles.

After turning the next corner, Albus got his answer.

Lying in the middle of the street was what looked like a blimp. Its bag had deflated from gashes torn in it, perhaps from the broken glass of the windows it had fallen through, and the body was broken in two, with a door hanging off the hinges. Albus's skin prickled, and the beauty no longer seemed so enchanting. He felt as though he had stepped into a horror story and there was no way out.

His boots protected him from the broken glass lying on the street as he approached the blimp. He knew he ought to turn and run, but he couldn't just tell his family about how he had been too afraid to go inside a blimp. James would never stop teasing him, and even Rose would talk about how she would have gone in and not been frightened. Even some of his aunts and uncles would likely have gone exploring, and if given half the chance, Teddy would have darted in there at once. Albus had to coax himself to take each step closer, and when he had reached the door, he nearly ducked around the body and went on down the street. After taking a quick breath, he stepped inside.

It was empty, but he hadn't expected anything else. There was a strange smell inside, which he supposed was the fuel, and everything was dark. Albus pulled out his wand and whispered, "_Lumos_." The wand's light allowed him to see further down the hall, but it also cast eerie shadows, and he wished one of his older cousins could be there. Teddy had just gotten out of Hogwarts, and he would probably know what to do, and even though Victoire was still just in her seventh year, she would have been welcome company. Dominique, or Louis, or Freddy, or Roxanne, or even Molly or Lucy would have been nice to have, though Lucy might have been a bit too young, and either way, he didn't see them very much. Still, he added their names to his whispered list as he walked down the hall.

There were other doors open along the hall, and Albus stopped to look through them. There wasn't any sign of people, but he did see abandoned bedrooms, sometimes with personal things scattered around, probably from when the ship crashed. Books lay open on the floor, and pictures had fallen from walls and desks, the glass around them shattering. One even had a broken frame, and another was whole, but only because it had jammed into a pillow. Some closet doors were open as well, and Albus saw gray suits that must have been uniforms hanging inside, along with a few brighter outfits. It didn't look as though anyone had taken anything with them when they left, and he supposed they must have been in a large hurry.

In one room he saw a dark stain on the floor, and he turned away quickly before being tempted to go closer and see whether it really was blood.

The blimp was bigger inside than it had looked, though Albus had only seen one side. He found several rooms full of weapons that had fallen off their racks, and other rooms where the weapons had been taken out. Those he found scattered throughout the halls, either broken or abandoned. He passed by several, but after seeing nearly a dozen, he picked up something that looked like a pistol. It didn't seem too hard to use, and if anyone attacked him, it would probably be more useful than his wand.

He found a large room that was probably the cafeteria – or whatever they called a cafeteria on a blimp – but he passed it by quickly, since it smelled of rotting food. The smell didn't reach too far past the doors, so he closed them and hurried on, trying to find something or someone useful. Every few meters he would pause and call for Avina, but the only answer he heard was the echo of his own voice. He didn't stop calling, even though he might attract something dangerous; he was more worried about not finding anyone than about being found by something frightening.

In the middle of the blimp, he found a trapdoor, which revealed a chamber full of what looked like rowboats with inflatable sacs on them. There didn't seem to be any missing, and Albus shuddered as he closed the door.

"Maybe they had parachutes," he whispered. "Avina! Avina, where are you?"

His voice sounded small and shaky in the echo, and the pistol didn't comfort him any. It felt heavy and unwieldy, and if he shot someone with it, he would have to see their blood, if he even managed to hit them. Trembling, he got to his feet and hurried on.

The last set of doors he came to was at the very front of the blimp, and they opened into a room filled with controls, along with a large set of windows that were now broken. Most of the controls seemed to be off, or at least they did nothing when he turned a dial or pressed a button. Sometimes he would move something that was close to a blinking light, and then the blimp would shudder, or the engine would rumble, or he would hear the bag above inflate slightly before deflating again. He considered climbing out the window and running as far and as fast as he could when he saw a folded note sitting by a button. Picking it up, he read: _Press this._

Before, he hadn't thought much about the fact that Avina spoke English. There had been other things that seemed more important, like finding a way to help her, or figuring out when would be a good time to kiss her. Now that he saw the words, though, he wondered whether it was just a coincidence or if there might be something more.

After a moment of considering, he decided it was probably magic. That seemed to be the answer to everything.

The button was large and thick, and it took several seconds of pushing for it to sink at all. When it did, a bright green light appeared, and all the controls flickered and hummed. They sounded as though they were straining to do something, and a few seconds later, the image of a bearded man with blue-green hair appeared. He was partially see-through, and when Albus circled around to see his face, he saw that the man had purple eyes and a gentle smile. His uniform was yellow, and he looked straight ahead, as though addressing someone who would be exactly at his eye level.

"Hello," he said. "My name is Alois Coinneach, and I'm the captain of the _Minnow's Perch_. If you're hearing this message, then our ship's gone down for some strange reason, and you've likely come across it from another world. I'm afraid you can't save us."


	16. Alois's Story

"Whoever you are," Captain Coinneach said, "I want this to serve as a warning. It didn't come in time for any of my crew, but if their deaths can serve any purpose – and I know that they would rather their deaths have purpose than otherwise – then let them keep you alive.

"It started in the mess hall. I know that isn't a proper explanation, but that was all we knew at first. There was a crackling noise, and I knew at once that something had come in from another world. We didn't know what it could possibly be, but we knew it wasn't the first. There had been another elsewhere in Essemeulia, and another in a different part of the world. This wasn't an isolated incident. Whatever brought it here was only the latest part of what I can only call an invasion.

"It killed Chiara, our cook. We heard her scream, just once, and I knew something was wrong. Dear girl… woman, really. She always hated when I called her girl. Said it didn't make her seem like enough of a soldier. She didn't go out in battle, though, but I bet she would have if we had any chance for a battle." The captain smiled, but it faded at once, and Albus thought he saw a tear in his eye. "We heard her scream, and I was the first one in the kitchen to see her. The thing was gone, but her body was still there. I cried. I'm not ashamed of it. If you'd known Chiara, you'd have cried, too.

"Her body was so still and cold, and there weren't any marks on it. The others were all set to send her out for a proper burial, but I was determined to search the ship for whatever had killed her. I gathered up my best men and women and set off after it. Revenge was the only thing I could think of, the only thing I wanted to think of. Our Chiara…

"But I digress. You don't want to hear about a brilliant young woman. You want the warning. You want to know what killed us all and how you can save yourself. I can't tell you the answer to the second part, but as to the first: we were killed by a monster the likes of which I'd never seen before.

"It was small, at least to start with. That's how it managed to travel so quickly. It could open little holes in reality, or at least that's how Botros described it. It managed to skip around inside the ship, attacking everyone. Yana, Khasan… so many others I promised to remember but never could. There are too many names when the dead start piling up. It bounced around through the ship, into people's rooms, into the halls, even into our bag. It made the first tear, and then we started to fall.

"You'd think it'd be hard to walk around in a falling blimp, and so did I, until I was caught in one while a cadet. There's a trick to it, one I mastered, and I managed to teach it to the others. They were brilliant, you know. I loved them as much as I could love my own family, and I miss them more than anything. I don't think I'll have much longer to miss them.

"But sweet Lady, I'm rambling again. You need to know how to save yourself. There won't be time for an elegy to any of them, and I doubt you're much in the mood to write one.

"In any case, we ran through the ship, trying to hunt it, but we only found bodies. They were just like Chiara's: cold and lifeless. Our only luck was that it grew bigger and slower with each death. We got closer to catching it, but we could never manage to find it, not until it started preying on us. By then, it must have killed everyone else on the ship, and it probably started devouring their bodies, as well, but I'll get to that in time. I'll try to tell it like it happened, because I haven't got the time to lay everything out logically. Maybe if it weren't so close… but no. I'd be too distraught. Funny. I'm not now, apparently. Something about impending death tends to clear the mind.

"Our path led us along ways we'd already traveled. Back to the mess hall, into rooms that we knew would hold bodies… but no one was there. Chiara was gone, and so were all the others. I thought maybe people had brought the bodies out and scattered them. It's our way with the dead; we give them to the ground, wherever that ground may be. It does pass the problem on to others, but we've never had any complaints." The captain smiled again, but there was an edge of madness to it this time, and his gaze flicked anxiously toward the door. "I'm not sure how much time I have left. Whoever you are, I hope I haven't brought about your death by my rambling. I'll finish the story if I can, because it's the best respect I can show for my people.

"I thought the dead had been sent off to their funerals, but then I started finding blood. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps it only came from a trip and a broken nose, or perhaps from a spilled bag of something for a transfusion, but in that moment, I was positive that the monster had been tearing my people apart and devouring them. I thought it came from skin being ripped from bone, bone being torn from muscle, muscle being scattered. I thought it came from pure destruction. I hoped I was wrong, and when I found I was right… I can't dwell on that. I can't think about what happened then." The captain buried his face in his hands. "Chiara, forgive me. I have to forget you, at least for a while.

"We saw that their bodies were gone. We thought that they were being devoured. Some wanted to flee, and I suppose I should have let them, perhaps even gone with them. We could have escaped, perhaps even lived, and then I could have gotten word to the royal family. Most have fled, but I know that our Princess Avina can help us."

"Avina?" Albus cried, forgetting for a moment that he was talking to a recording. "You know Avina? Is she here?"

The captain didn't respond to that. He only went on speaking to some imagined person taller than Albus, telling them everything that had happened in a tone so heartbroken that it chilled Albus to the bone. He hadn't known that adults could feel pain like that, could feel it so powerfully that it physically ached inside their bodies.

"Our princess is strong, but then, you would know that, wouldn't you? Everyone knows about Princess Avina. She may be young, but someday, she'll be strong enough to save us all. She's our best hope, our only hope. If you can find her, tell her that she was a dying man's hope.

"She was who I thought of as I walked down the halls, and she was who I thought of until the moment I heard a scream just behind me. It was Yana, our powerful Yana, and I turned just in time to see the monster devouring her. I saw her die, saw those wonderful eyes try to close, but they didn't. Not quite. She didn't have enough strength left in her to close her eyes, and they were half-open when she landed on the floor. Then the thing moved on to us. We were its only source of food, and it was going to devour us. I don't think it was intelligent, or if it was, it was far too hungry to care that we would all be eaten soon, that it was stuffing itself…" The captain's voice rose until it was nearly a scream, but he stifled it with his mouth and spoke on. "It was hungry, and it would devour.

"I told you before that it was like nothing I had ever seen. I'm used to monsters being animals of some sort, animals that have been twisted in some way to make them uncanny, to make them wrong, so that your entire body shies away from them before you even understand why. This thing was wrong, and I shied away from it, but it wasn't the sort of animal that I'm used to seeing. It had no legs, no mouth, no anything that I could identify, and it reminded me of nothing but a bit of oil that had gotten loose from the engine during the cleaning, only this wasn't a bit. It was huge, larger than Yana and nearly as large as me. I knew what it could do, what it would do, and there wasn't anything I could do to stop it.

"You probably think I'm a great man, someone very brave who rallied his troops and managed to destroy the beat. I didn't. It's still out there, somewhere. By the time you hear this, it may have left, but right now, it's right outside my door. I haven't got much time left, so I'll speak quickly.

"I didn't rally my troops. I didn't even try to save them. I ran, abandoning them to their fate. Khasan screamed for me to stop, but I didn't. I kept running until I had managed to barricade myself. It wasn't the best barricade I could have made, since although it kept me safe, I still had to see them die. At least, I saw one. Khasan the brave. Khasan the damned.

"This is how it feeds: It drains the body of its warmth. Khasan turned pale, so pale that he could have had his hand mistaken for mine. After he fell, the thing moved over him, covering his body. It was merciful, I suppose, that I didn't have to watch it tear him apart, but I still had to hear it. He was dead, and the only screams I heard were when he was freezing, but I could hear his body being torn apart. If you've heard it, then there's no reason for me to describe it to you. If you haven't, then I can only pray that you never do. It's a sound made purely for torture, and I very nearly threw myself out of the barricade just so I could die and not have to think of that sound any more.

"But I'm a coward. I managed to run, and I ended up in here. The blimp crashed, but I barely noticed. I was too busy locking the door and trying to save myself, however I could. The windows were open, and I could have left, but then I remembered that there were other things like that out there. I'd heard reports from all around the world, and I knew that even if I managed to escape, I would still likely die. Perhaps even Princess Avina would die, and Essemeulia's hope would be gone.

"But if you're alive to hear this, then there is still hope. Find a way to defeat the beast, and perhaps you can save a handful of people, maybe even enough to bring life to this world again. If you can, find Princess Avina. I have tried not to give in to despair, and so I will insist on believing that she lives, even if I can't quite trust myself to hold that hope.

"But more than anything else, you must get out of here alive. Do you understand? Get away from here, as fast as you can, and good luck. My death will do nothing. Your life may bring about everything."

Albus didn't wait for the captain's image to vanish before scrambling out the window, cutting his hands on broken glass.


	17. Between Worlds

Albus didn't have far to run before he found Avina. She was crouched beside a broken glass door, turning something over in her hands, but she wasn't so engrossed in it that she missed Albus running up the street. She dropped the thing, which glinted in the sunlight, and ran toward him, grabbing his hand and pulling him off the road and to the side as soon as she had reached him.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered. "Did you follow me?"

"I don't know," he gasped. His chest was heaving from running so far, and his legs shook, but Avina had pushed his back against a wall, and he couldn't sit down. She was stronger than she looked, and for all he knew, the thing was still after him. "I didn't follow you on purpose, I swear. One minute I was standing on the lake, and the next I was in a street, here. I found a blimp with a recording of some captain with blue hair, and he said to tell you that you were his dying hope." The words were still in his mind, but they grew garbled as he tried to speak, and it wasn't until Avina released his collar that he was able to relax.

"Blue hair?" she asked. "Alois Coinneach?"

"I think so." The name sounded right, though he wasn't entirely sure if he had heard it correctly. "He also talked about some monster that looked like a drop of oil and fed on people by draining their body heat and then…" He gulped, but Avina was staring at him, and he knew he had to go on. "And then tearing them apart."

"So they got Coinneach," Avina said softly. "He was a good man. I wish… but it doesn't matter now. I have to get you back to Hogwarts. How did you say you followed me?"

"I'm not sure," Albus said. "I was just standing on the ice –"

"Of course!" She spoke so suddenly that Albus jumped, and he wondered if it was being in her home that made her more able to speak. "The spell would have worked differently in your world. You'll have to tell Professor Zahradnik about that. She'll be very interested, I'm sure. Come with me." Before giving him a chance to ask what was going on, she grabbed his hand and strode down the street.

It was the second time in only a few minutes that Avina had taken Albus's hand, and neither time had he felt any sort of strange spark that he would have expected from being in love. Now that he thought about it, it did feel nice, but he couldn't shake the fear that something looking like a drop of oil – a very large drop of oil by now – would leap out and attack them both. He didn't want to die, and he certainly didn't want Avina to die, so he trembled with every step they took, hardly trying to be brave.

"Where are we going?" he asked after a few minutes. Avina had been leading him down empty streets and forlorn avenues, and he didn't know what any of the buildings around them could be. The tall one that looked like it was made of marble could have been a hospital just as easily as it could have been a school.

"I'm taking you someplace where I can get you back to Hogwarts. I only hope it hasn't been taken over yet."

"What if it has?" There was another fear that seemed to latch on to the back of his mind: that his only hope for getting home would be destroyed. Rose would miss him, he realized, and Lily, and even James would probably feel sad. His parents would as well, and the thought of that almost brought tears to his eyes. He wiped them away quickly, before Avina could see, but she was too focused on the path ahead to look back at him.

"That depends on how badly it's been taken. If the priests are gone, then I may have to work the mechanism myself. I think I can do that. At least, I've learned how, though I've never done it before."

"I trust you," Albus said, though he said it so quietly that he wasn't sure whether she was ignoring him or simply hadn't heard him.

"If the whole place has been destroyed," she went on, "then there may not be a way to get you home."

"Would I have to stay here?" he asked.

"I'm afraid so. I'd do my best to protect you, of course, but you'd still be in a lot of danger."

He wanted to say something grand and noble, like how staying here wouldn't be any trouble if she was by his side, or how he would try to protect her as well. Instead, all that came out was, "I've still got my wand."

"Then maybe I'll be able to teach you to use magic," she said with a smile. It was a tight, nervous smile, but he thought he saw something genuine in it. "You should be able to master some of it, even if you do have to use a focus. No offense, but… well, you'll understand someday."

"Where are we going?" Albus asked again.

"I already told you," Avina said. "I'm taking you to someplace that can help you."

"You said it has priests and a mechanism," Albus said. "I don't understand what kind of place that is."

Avina paused just for a moment to look at him incredulously. "I would have thought you could guess," she said. "What sort of temples do they have on your world?"

* * *

Albus didn't return even at night, and Scorpius knew he had to do something. He wasn't entirely sure what he ought to do, but he knew that he had to act alone. He couldn't drag other people into this. He didn't know what he would say if they started asking questions, and he wasn't sure what he would do if word got out that he had gotten his best friend lost in some other world. Besides, it was his fault, if only partially, and he ought to be the one to fix it. The only way he could think to do that was by sneaking into the Restricted Section of the library.

It was a great idea, he thought as he padded down the hall. There had to be a book somewhere in there that could help, and if there wasn't, then he just had to sneak back to his room. So long as he wasn't caught, the plan was foolproof. He just wished he felt a little bolder than he did at the moment, and the fact that he was wearing striped pajamas and a robe didn't help one bit.

Making it up to the library was surprisingly easy. Scorpius was small and slight, even for his age, and whenever he heard someone coming, he was able to duck aside into a shadow or an empty classroom. He was seen only once, by a rather mournful-looking ghost of an old man, who simply nodded at him before floating on. Not sure what the ghost had meant by that, Scorpius sprinted for the stairs and took them two at a time, only just missing one that tended to split into two different steps as soon as a foot was laid on it.

By the time he reached the library, his heart was pounding and he was out of breath. It had only been a matter of luck that he had made it there safely, and as he entered, he glanced nervously about, hoping that Madam Pince wasn't around. She apparently didn't sleep in the library, for no one stopped him as he approached the Restricted Section and ducked under the rope. When nothing terrible happened, he stepped forward and began scanning the books.

Most were so old that the titles were worn away or in a language he didn't understand. Wishing he had brought Ruby, Scorpius lit his wand with a murmured "_Lumos" _and crept on. After a few minutes of searching and glancing at the door, he found a book titled _Worlds Dangerous and Strange_ and pulled it down. It was heavy, but he managed to balance it on both arms before opening it.

A howl went up from the book, something terrifying and unearthly that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Not bothering to put the book away, he dropped it and ran, only thinking to put out the light in his wand when he was out of the library.

If creeping through the darkened castle had been frightening, sprinting through it was even worse. Every shadow was a professor waiting to catch him out of bed, and every sound was someone waiting to pursue him. He hurtled down stairs so quickly that three times he nearly tripped over the hem of his rope and tumbled the rest of the way down, and still he didn't stop until he felt a hand on his shoulder, when he froze.

"Going somewhere, boy?" a rough voice asked from above him.

Scorpius couldn't seem to find his voice, and he only shook his head. His wand was tucked into his pocket, but he wasn't sure he could use it to get the man to let him go. Even if he did, the man held a lantern and had likely seen his face.

"Well, then, I think it's time you paid the Headmistress a little visit. If it's convenient for you."

This time, the journey to Professor Zahradnik's office felt both slow and all too fast. Scorpius didn't want to arrive there, but he also wanted any way to keep the man from talking about what sort of punishment he might get for being out of bed in the middle of the night and in the Restricted Section to boot.

"Now, McGonagall and Dumbledore, they went soft on you students. Lines and detentions and the like. Zahradnik, though, she probably likes the old ways better. I wouldn't be surprised if she scares you away from the library for a month." The man cackled. Now that they were on the moving staircase, Scorpius had a chance to get a good look at him. He was old, old enough that he vaguely reminded Scorpius of Professor Binns, though this man had far more substance. He was hunched over, and his thin hair was pale gray and hung to his shoulders, though there wasn't very much of it. When he looked at Scorpius, it was with thinly disguised hate, and when they reached the top of the staircase, he shoved Scorpius toward the door, growling, "Go on, then. Knock."

Scorpius knocked, and after a while, he heard a groan. "What the devil do you want?" Professor Zahradnik barked. loud enough to be heard through t door, and Scorpius jumped.

"First year caught in the Restricted Section, Headmistress," the man said, grinning.

"Fine, fine," Professor Zahradnik called. "Send him in, Argus."

Scorpius opened the door and stepped inside. The office looked much the same as it had before, but this time Professor Zahradnik was wrapped in a dressing gown and her hair looked as though tufts of it were trying to escape. She looked him over a few times before sighing.

"Restricted Section, Malfoy? I thought you had more sense than that. Oh, well. Sit down, will you? You look like you're about to faint right there."

Scorpius walked numbly to a chair and dropped into it.

"Now, what tea would you like?" Professor Zahradnik asked. "I know some like it black, but I'm partial to spice." She looked him up and down again before nodding. "Spice, I think. You could use some color. Minerva would have offered you a biscuit, but my cat eats them all, so I'm afraid tea will be the best I can do."


	18. The Tower and the Temple

Professor Zahradnik pulled a kettle and brazier from her desk and filled one with water and the other with fire. While the water boiled, she set some tea leaves in two cups and passed one to Scorpius. "The Restricted Section, then?" she asked. "There's at least one of those every year, it seems. So tell me, what was your reason? Curiosity? A dare from one of the older students?"

"Curiosity," Scorpius said. He still felt as though he could hardly speak. "I wanted to find out how to get Albus back."

Professor Zahradnik sighed. "I suppose Argus terrified you. I swear, if I could find someone willing to take his job, I'd sack him in an instant. Of course, no one really wants to be what's essentially a janitor. Besides, he wouldn't have anywhere to go. Who but Hogwarts would take on a Squib?"

Scorpius wasn't sure what to say to that, and it was a relief when the water finished boiling and the Headmistress poured them each a cup of tea. After blowing the steam from hers, she took a sip, but Scorpius waited for his to cool a bit. It tasted sweet and spicy, and it warmed him up almost at once. Something tingled in his nose, and he felt the warmth all through his body. "This is better than Pepper-Up Potion," he said, and Professor Zahradnik smiled.

"I've been trying to tell Hannah that for years," she said. "Of course, since she was brought up drinking that stuff, her habits will die hard. Now, about the Restricted Section."

"I'm sorry," Scorpius said quickly. "I'll never do it again."

"No. You'll do something even more foolish." She took a sip of her tea, looking as serene as anyone could be at that hour of the night. "I'm not interested in your apologies, Malfoy. I want to know why you were there, and I won't play games with a shy little boy. You said something about Albus being missing. I want the truth now. I haven't even heard that he was gone."

Scorpius told everything, nearly babbling. Sometimes he paused to take a drink of his tea or to wipe his nose on a handkerchief that Professor Zahradnik gave him. When he got to the part where Albus vanished, his voice broke, and he had to gulp the rest of his tea, even the dregs, to calm down. He did his best to keep Ruby out of it, but he couldn't help feeling that the Headmistress knew somehow that he was leaving someone out. When he finished, she looked at him for a moment.

"Why didn't you come to me for help at once?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said. His reasons of before sounded childish and silly now, and he didn't want to admit them to the Headmistress.

She didn't press him for any reason and instead asked, "Would you like my help?"

Scorpius could only nod.

"Then I'll help you. I'll need some time, of course. This will be a difficult spell, but I will bring Albus Potter back." She set down her empty cup and got to her feet. "All my time here, and this is the first time I've ever lost a student to another world. I've had some die, and some go to other countries or other schools, but never another world." She smiled ruefully. "If he weren't so young, I might be thrilled."

"But you will bring him back?" Scorpius asked.

"I'll hardly rest until he's safely in Hogwarts again," she said. "Now, off to bed with you. I'll lose sleep over your friend so you don't have to." She smiled again and gently ushered him out the door.

Scorpius hardly remembered the walk back to the Slytherin common room. He had vague memories of walking through dark halls and passing ghosts, but the only clear thought he had was when he was settled into bed and staring at the empty place where Albus ought to be. He wanted his friend back so badly it ached inside, but he closed his eyes and somehow managed to fall asleep.

* * *

The temple wasn't like any temple Albus had ever seen. It was tall and grand, and it did have pillars all around it, but it wasn't built of marble. Instead, the floor and pillars were made of bright bronze, and the ceiling was cut glass that refracted sunlight into rainbows and strange shapes on the floor. It hadn't fallen, but there were dead bodies scattered about, men clad in all the colors Albus could imagine.

"Don't worry," Avina said, but she sounded as though she was trying to convince herself as much as him. "It's only the priests who died."

"What would they have done?" Albus asked as she drew him up the stairs and inside.

"They would have worked the mechanism, of course," she said. "You must have strange temples in your world if they don't have any mechanisms in them."

Albus couldn't think of the last time he had been in a temple, or even a church, but he was sure they didn't have any mechanisms in them, unless there were some Muggle creations inside them. When he saw the mechanism, all thoughts of anything Muggle left his mind. This was something so much greater than whatever the Muggle world could create.

It was a mass of metal and gears, with a little chamber in the middle. The air around it seemed to crackle with magic, and it felt so inviting that Albus wanted to fling himself forward and feel the power working all around him. "This is incredible," he said. "How does it work?"

"Magic," Avina said. "How else?"

It was magic and mundane combined into something that exceeded both, and Albus felt his breath catch in his throat from the sheer beauty of it. "Can it send me back to Hogwarts?"

"I hope so," Avina said. Albus would have run up to the mechanism right then, but she sounded so sad that he had to turn back and take her other hand.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's nothing," she said quickly, but she didn't try to pull away from him. "I'll miss you. It's nothing more than that."

"Is there any way I can write to you?" Albus asked.

"I don't know," Avina said. "If there is, then I'll be the first to write you." She leaned forward and kissed him quickly on the lips. "I won't forget you. There's not a chance of that."

"I won't forget you either," Albus said, and he didn't know what to say after that. Avina kissed him again, and he kissed her back, trying to hold on to the warmth of her lips against his for as long as he could before he had to go into the mechanism.

The magic in the chamber was incredible, and it made his nails itch. Avina was shouting something about how it wouldn't hurt him or even affect him very much, but he could barely hear her. There were colors dancing before his eyes and a strange song in his ears, and something brushing over his skin that he could barely identify. His mouth and nose were filled with a thick syrup that wasn't sweet or sour but something altogether different, something that clung. And then everything was gone, and he was falling through dozens of worlds.

Just before Essemeulia vanished, he thought he heard Avina scream.

It was like using Floo Powder, only far stranger. Instead of seeing into other fireplaces, he seemed to see into other worlds. He saw something that looked like knights fighting, and then into what must have been a dungeon. He saw two women in a hospital and a city being shaken by an earthquake. He saw a girl pleading with an older man and a woman clutching a man's hands tightly. He wasn't spinning but falling, although which direction he was falling was a mystery. One moment he was falling down, then up, then left, then down again but at an angle, and he wondered how the mechanism would be able to get him to Hogwarts with all these other worlds to choose from.

Then something bright and golden shot past Albus, and he reached out to grab it. The light was warm and sharp, and though he feared it might cut into his skin, he felt no pain. Instead, it wrapped around him and pulled him so quickly that everything grew dizzying, and he closed his eyes to avoid the sensation. His stomach still felt strange, and when he landed on a solid floor, he didn't move, even when the light vanished and someone set a hand on his shoulder.

"Potter? Potter, are you all right?"

The voice was familiar, and he groaned.

"I suppose that's a yes. Can you stand?" Before Albus could answer, the familiar voice – Professor Zahradnik, perhaps – set a hand under his arm and drew him to his feet. He opened his eyes and recognized the Headmistress, even though she wore a dressing gown and looked tired. He didn't recognize her office, but he saw the portraits of former Headmasters and Headmistresses, including Albus Dumbledore, who his father had told him about often.

"It's dark," he said.

"It's the middle of the night," Professor Zahradnik said.

"But it was afternoon," he protested. "Or at least, it was day. I don't know when." There had been a sun, and light to see by. His thoughts felt fuzzy now, and he didn't protest when the Headmistress guided him to a chair and poured him a cup of some strange, spiced tea.

"I didn't think you'd come through this fast," she said, but Albus was only half listening. "I thought it might take days, but I suppose we're both lucky. Your friend Malfoy will be glad to see you again."

Scorpius. It must have been hours since they'd last seen each other. He and Ruby were probably worried about him, and if he thought he could stand, he would have gone to find them at once. The password to the Ravenclaw tower was a riddle, and he might be able to answer it.

"You ought to get some rest," the Headmistress said. "Can you find your way back to the common room?"

"I think so," Albus said.

Apparently he did, because less than an hour later he was curled up in his own bed, dressed in his pajamas and wrapped up in blankets. Everyone around him was asleep, but he lay awake for a long while, wondering what that scream had been. He hoped that it had just been Avina missing him – though that would hurt in its own way – but he couldn't help fearing that she had been attacked by the monster and was now dead. She had died to save him, and that dead man's hope was gone.

When he finally did fall asleep, he had dreams of oil seeping out of the walls of Hogwarts and attacking the students. Nearly everyone's faces were blurs, but Scorpius, Ruby, and Rose were clear as anything. He even saw James, just once, before the sound of everyone getting up woke him.

* * *

Scorpius woke slowly, and for a full minute he lay curled under his blankets, wondering if there was any way he could get out of going to class. Perhaps he could say he was sick. He certainly didn't feel well, and he didn't think even spiced tea could help.

He rolled over, hoping to ask someone if they could copy down the homework, and saw Albus sitting up. His hair was mussed and he looked exhausted, but he smiled at the sight of Scorpius. "Morning," he said with a yawn. "Are you all right? How's Ruby? I hope you didn't worry about me."

"Where were you?" Scorpius asked.

"Essemeulia," Albus said. "I'll explain when Ruby's here, too. There's something the two of you should know."


	19. A World of Magic

When Ruby saw Albus, she squealed with excitement and flung her arms around him, nearly knocking him off his feet. When Madam Pince tried to shush them, she only shot the librarian a cold look before pulling Albus and Scorpius to their table in the back. As soon as they had settled down, Ruby whispered, "Did you go to Essemeulia? What happened? Are you all right? How's Avina?"

"Give him a minute," Scorpius said. "He only just got back last night." Albus still looked tired, and he had been yawning all day. Scorpius had wanted to go back to their dormitory, but Albus had insisted on seeing Ruby.

"It's all right," Albus said. "I'm just a bit tired. I'll be fine in a second." He yawned again, covering it with his hand. "Avina's spell didn't work right because there's something different about her world. There's a lot more magic there, and they've found a way to get it to work with technology. That's how she got me back here. There's something – she only called it a mechanism, so I don't know if it has another name – that's covered in gears, and it can send people between worlds."

"I thought Professor Zahradnik was going to bring you back," Scorpius said. The Headmistress had said nothing of Albus's disappearance or reappearance at breakfast that morning, and he had thought that she had just wanted to keep the whole thing quiet so no one would get nervous.

"She did," Albus said. "Avina just sent me part of the way."

"Avina made it back, then?" Ruby asked. "Is she going to fulfill her destiny, or whatever it was she planned to do? Will she be all right?"

"I don't know." Albus shifted nervously in his seat. "I hope she managed to get away in time."

"From what?" Scorpius asked. He felt as though his stomach had dropped, and from the look on Albus's face, knowing wouldn't give him any sort of peace. There wouldn't be anything any of them could do, after all, aside from hoping that she would be all right.

"I don't know," Albus said again. "I mean, I didn't see what it was, but I could guess. There are monsters there, and one of them might have found her."

"What kind of monsters?" Ruby asked. Scorpius felt as though he couldn't say anything; his throat was dry, and the library seemed cold, even though it was inside and neither of the others looked at all uncomfortable.

"I didn't see any of them, but I heard about what they were," Albus said. "They look like drops of oil, and they drain the warmth out of people."

"Drain the warmth," Ruby murmured. She pulled a quill and some parchment out of her bag and began jotting down notes. "I'm not sure how much time we might have, but if we have any, then I want to find out as much as I can about this thing. I wonder how it could have evolved, or if evolution has anything at all to do with magic."

Scorpius shared a glance with Albus and saw that his friend understood no more of that than he had. "Is there anything we can do to help?" he asked.

"Albus can keep telling me about the creature," Ruby said. "Scorpius… you can beat Rose in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Grab a book and start studying."

Annoyed at having been brushed off so quickly, Scorpius opened his Defense Against the Dark Arts book and stared at a page, but he didn't read. Instead, he listened to Albus describing the creature and Ruby's muttering as she filled her parchment with notes and suppositions. Once she had several inches filled out in her tiny handwriting, she set down her quill and leaned back with a sigh.

"What I wouldn't give for a ballpoint pen," she muttered. "Scorpius, you can stop pretending to study now. I'll need your help."

Scorpius closed the book. "How did you know I was pretending?"

"Your gaze was on my parchment instead of the book," Ruby said with a grin. "Don't you remember that I know how to read people?"

Scorpius tried to be annoyed again, but Ruby just seemed to bright and eager that he couldn't. "What do you need?"

"Books, of course," she said. "Albus, you can help too, if you want. We're going to learn about vampires. I know some things about them, but I don't know if those things are accurate, so we'll have to study whatever lore this library has."

"Sure," Albus muttered, and he got to his feet, covering another yawn. He seemed a bit distant, and not just because he probably had only gotten half a night's sleep. His head was in the clouds so far that the rest of his body was probably in the sky as well, and Scorpius was tempted to ask Ruby if this research could wait long enough for Albus to get some sleep. She was still eager and excited, though, so he held his tongue until they found some books on vampires.

"How do you know about vampires already?" he asked.

"Muggles have stories about them," Ruby said. "Lots of stories, actually. My mom's really interested in those kinds of things, so I grew up hearing about Dracula and Varney instead of Peter the Rabbit and all those hobbits."

"Varney?"

"Really old vampire story. Oh, this one looks good." Ruby pulled out a thick book and rubbed some dust off the cover. "Have you found anything interesting?"

He had found four books and was just looking over a fifth one when she asked. "I've got a few things," he said. "I'm not sure how much help they'll be, though, and one might be in Romanian."

"I'll have to learn that, then," Ruby said. "Meet me back at our table when you're ready." Neither could wave, since their arms were full of books, but they smiled, and then she was gone. Scorpius put back the Romanian book and found one written in English, though it was the old sort of English, and according to Ruby, people hadn't decided how they wanted to spell things yet.

When Scorpius got back to the table, Ruby and Albus were both immersed in books, and both were writing things down. Ruby waved him over and cleared a bit of room for his stack, and he settled into the chair to read.

Hours passed, and Scorpius filled sheets of parchment, which he sometimes traded with Ruby so she could have a chance to look over everything. He wanted the same, but after a certain point, everything just seemed to blur into the same thing over and over. If Ruby had a problem with his notes, she didn't say anything, so he assumed the exhaustion was only affecting his reading. It was a heavy exhaustion, something that weighed on his body, and more than once he glanced over at Albus to see him asleep. He envied him and would have paid all the money in his family vault at Gringotts for a comfortable bed, but he didn't want Ruby to be the only one awake, so he forced himself to keep working.

"Done," Albus said, setting down his quill. Scorpius looked up from a dry discussion of vampire feeding habits just in time to see his friend stretch and lean back in his chair.

"You've finished all your books?" Ruby asked.

Albus shook his head. "I've finished my essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts. I figured that since we had to learn about vampires I might as well do my essay on them. I know it's not due until next week, but this way I'll get a chance to do some studying later without thinking about that."

Ruby sighed. "As long as you remember what we're trying to look up," she said, returning to her book.

"What are we trying to look up?" Albus asked. "Can vampires do something to help us find Avina, or is there some other reason you're obsessed with them?"

"I'm not obsessed," Ruby snapped.

"Really?" Albus asked. "Then why have we been studying only vampires for the past several hours? I checked just a bit ago. We've missed dinner. You're just as bad as Scorpius was when he was obsessed with transdimensional travel, but at least we knew how that was going to help. Vampires, though? What, are we going to team up with them to reach Essemeulia?"

"I would have thought you'd understand why I'm doing this," Ruby said. She slammed a book shut so hard that it released a puff of dust, and Scorpius sneezed. When Ruby heard him, she turned to him, but instead of apologizing, she said pointedly, "I'm sure Scorpius knows why I'm doing this."

Another sneeze brought Scorpius a second of time to think, and when he looked up, he saw Ruby staring at him, daring him to say that he didn't have any idea. Albus was looking at him as well, but his look was blank and rather confused. "It's because of the warmth, right?" Scorpius asked. "You think that whatever's in Avina's world is like a vampire, but it drains warmth instead of blood."

"Exactly," Ruby said, opening another book. "There are a lot of other things I'll need to study, but vampires are the first things. After that, I'll need to see if I can find anything about animals that look like oil."

"Tomorrow," Scorpius said, getting to his feet and gathering up the books. "I'm going to bed, and you should get some sleep, too." It was too late to get any food, but he would just eat a bit more at breakfast the next morning. Hopefully he would be able to sleep despite his growling stomach. Albus yawned again and began gathering his books as well, trailing after Scorpius like a kite on a string.

"But what about Avina?" Ruby asked. "I don't know how long we might have."

"It might be too late," Albus said. Scorpius had never heard him sound so defeated. "I don't think there's anything we can do, even if we do find out what that thing was."

"But… but…" With a mutter of annoyance, Ruby began grabbing her books, stacking a red one on a green one, then a blue atop that. "I'm going to keep studying this," she said. "You two don't have to help me, but I'm going to figure out what this thing is."

"Good," Scorpius said. "Avina said it might be able to travel through dimensions, so if it comes here, we'll have to know what to do."

"It can travel," Albus said quietly. "The dead man told me."

They were silent as they put their books away and as they filed out of the library. Ruby said good night to them, and Albus and Scorpius headed down the stairs to the Slytherin common room.

"It was such a strange place," Albus said suddenly, and Scorpius looked at him in surprise. "There was magic everywhere, but I could notice it. I could almost feel it. Maybe Essemeulia has more magic than Earth, and that's why Avina didn't need a wand to cast her spell."

"Maybe the magic just works differently," Scorpius said. "You might not be able to feel it here because you just can't."

"Because there's something wrong with me?" Albus asked.

Scorpius shook his head. "It's like when you walk into a room that smells strange. You didn't notice what the other room smelled like, but you notice this one, because it's new. At least, that's what I think it might be. I'm not sure."

Everyone else was asleep when they went into the dormitory, and in a whisper as they lay down, Albus said, "It was different, though. Like an eclipse had gone from my mind. I don't know where it went or where it came from, but while I was there, I thought I could do anything."


	20. Rubeus Hagrid

They were working themselves to exhaustion. Albus could see it in the others – Ruby was pale and letting her classes fall to the wayside, and Scorpius looked the same as he had before the Christmas vacation – and he could feel it in himself. His head was so full of theories and facts that he found them slipping into the rest of his life. If there was even a chance that something about vampires or alternate theories of magic that he only half understood could slip into his schoolwork, it would. His professors noticed and thought he was being precocious, but Albus knew he was starting to be just as obsessed as the others.

They still hadn't found anything solid that would help, but Ruby insisted that it would take time. After all, nothing worth learning could be learned quickly, especially if it was something they had to learn themselves.

"I still thought it would be faster than this," Scorpius said. He'd been staring at the same page for five minutes, and he looked as though he was asleep but with his eyes still open. "It's the middle of February, and we still don't know anything."

"We know a lot," Ruby snapped. "We just don't know how it all fits together. I know how to describe this, but I don't know what it is." Before any of them could ask what she wanted to describe, she buried herself in her book again. She'd been doing that a lot lately, and it was that more than Scorpius's pallor and listlessness that made Albus think they all needed some time away from the library.

"I'm going to be outside tomorrow," he announced. "Do any of you want to come with me?"

"There isn't any proper snow outside," Ruby said. "It's all frozen and slushy." She made a face and turned the page of her book. "If I do take a break, I'll spend it in the Ravenclaw common room with some hot chocolate."

Scorpius only shrugged, still not looking up from his book.

"I'll go myself, then," Albus said. "And I'm going to bed now." He felt strangely defiant as he closed his book and left the library, though as he walked back to the Slytherin common room, he couldn't help feeling a little melancholy as well. He felt as though he had abandoned his friends and Avina, and nothing would make him feel better about that.

Well, almost nothing would.

* * *

The next day was a Saturday, and when Albus woke, everyone else in the dormitory was still asleep. He dressed as quietly as he could and left, and was one of the first people at breakfast. Breakfast was a more casual meal, especially on the weekends and as the year went on, and more often than not people would trickle in and out of the Great Hall, sometimes coming back for seconds or even thirds. Albus tended to only go in once, but he always got two servings. The food was delicious, and being at Hogwarts was often so demanding that he needed two servings to not feel half-starved by lunch.

On that Saturday, he made sure to fill himself up as much as he could before heading out. It had been a few weeks since he had visited Hagrid, but he doubted the half-giant's cooking had improved at all since then. If it had stayed largely the same in the more than twenty years since his father had gone to Hogwarts, Albus doubted a month or so would make Hagrid suddenly decide to cook his rock cakes so someone with human teeth could eat them. The tea was good, though, and he could use the company, so he had decided to spend the morning there.

Ruby had been right; the snow was terrible. It had been gradually melting and refreezing, so it was now a field of ice that crunched and broke under his boots. He walked carefully toward the hut, trying not to sink into the deeper patches, though it was difficult to tell where the ice was sturdy and where it wasn't unless his full weight was already on the questionable patch. At least it was a short walk, although it wasn't very quick, for all the times Albus slipped and stumbled. When he reached the door, he was a little breathless from the fun of nearly falling, and he wondered if he should have gotten out of the library long ago if nearly falling on his back was his idea of fun.

He knocked on the door and was at once answered with, "Jus' a minute!" A moment later, the door opened, and Hagrid beamed down at Albus, grinning. He was tall and broad, with gray-streaked black hair and kind dark eyes, and he ushered Albus inside. "Come in, come in. Been a while since I saw you."

"I've been busy," Albus said, stepping into the warmth. A fire was roaring in the hearth, and a great dog lay on a rug, snoring. Albus had encountered the dog on his visits before, where he had stood nearly as tall as Albus's shoulders and nudged him under the arm so hard that he nearly toppled over. His name was Duke, and he was one of the friendliest dogs Albus had ever encountered, though he was still a bit skittish around him.

"How hard do they work yeh at the school these days?" Hagrid asked. "Yer father used ter come down here all the time. 'Course, back then, they had Professor Dumbledore in charge. Not that I'm sayin' anything against Professor Zahradnik, but she's a mite stricter 'n he was."

"It isn't Professor Zahradnik," Albus said as he sat down. "Scorpius, Ruby, and I have been working on a project."

"Tea?" Hagrid asked, holding up a kettle. Despite having just left the castle, the walk had chilled Albus, and he nodded. Hagrid poured two mugs of steaming tea and passed one to Albus, who cradled it in his hands. "Wha' sort o' project?"

"It's…" Albus hesitated and took a gulp of tea. It was still too hot for him to properly taste it, but it warmed him up at once. "Have you heard about the girl that appeared in Professor Baumhauer's class?"

"Aye," Hagrid said. "Ev'ryone was talkin' 'bout her. Wasn' her name Avina?"

"Yeah," Albus said. "She went back to her own world last month." He hadn't meant to talk about it this much, but he found himself telling Hagrid everything he remembered about Essemeulia, and how Scorpius and Ruby were trying to figure out what had happened there, but they still weren't quite sure, so it felt like they weren't doing anything at all productive. By the time he finished, Hagrid had poured himself another mug of tea and was drinking it.

"Yeh're righ'," he said after a moment. "Yeh've been busy."

"I don't suppose you can help?" Albus asked. As he brought the mug to his mouth, he realized that they were looking for a magical creature, and who better to ask than the man in charge of Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts? Setting down the cup, he leaned forward and asked, "Have you heard of anything that sounds like what this does?"

"Can' say I have," Hagrid said. "'Course, it could be summat tha' on'y belongs ter where Avina's from."

Albus frowned at his mug. It wasn't from Essemeulia, but perhaps it only belonged to wherever it had been before that. He tried to remember some of the phrases Ruby had been using, like _invasive species _and _pseudopod_. "What about amoebas?" he asked. "Have you heard of those?"

Hagrid shook his head. "Is tha' what it's called?"

"No," Albus said. "It's something Ruby's heard of, and she says this thing might be like one."

"She may be righ'," Hagrid said. "Yer Ruby's a clever one. I'd call her the brightest witch of her age, but we can' forget Rose."

Albus couldn't help grinning at that. Ruby wouldn't be glad to hear it, not only because it meant that there was someone cleverer than her who wasn't a Ravenclaw but because it meant that Rose was still doing better than Scorpius. If anyone but her was going to get the top marks, Albus knew, she would prefer it to be Scorpius.

"Yeh're still friends with the Malfoy boy, then?" Hagrid asked.

"Yeah," Albus said. "Is there a reason I shouldn't be?"

"Well, at tha' age, his father was a righ' little weasel, and he on'y got worse. His father was a Death Eater, and so was the whole fam'ly. I heard they changed, but I dunno how much I trust them."

"Scorpius is different," Albus said. "He was nice to me on my first day, and he didn't want to be a Slytherin. He's nice to Ruby, too, and she's a Muggle-born."

"All righ', yeh've told me before," Hagrid said wearily. "Jus' be careful."

"I will," Albus said, though he didn't mean it. He wouldn't have to be careful around Scorpius, at least not as much as he was around James. Though he and his brother had gotten along all right over the holiday, Albus thought that might have been just because it was Christmas and they were with the whole family.

For the rest of the morning, he and Hagrid talked about less serious matters. There were some very promising students in the N.E.W.T. group of students, especially one named Marissa Chaput, who was apparently planning to spend time with her family in France before heading east to study Veela. There were a clever bunch in the ones preparing for their O.W.L.s, too, but none stood out to Hagrid as much as Marissa had.

"Migh' not be another like her for years," Hagrid said. "She reminds me o' yer Uncle Charlie. How's he doin'? Still in Romania?"

Albus nodded. "He visited for Christmas and told us that Norberta's laid some eggs. They haven't hatched yet, but he'll write when they do." James had asked Uncle Charlie to send him an egg, but their uncle had just laughed and patted his head, which made James grumble that he wasn't a child.

Hagrid teared up a little and dabbed at his eyes with a large handkerchief. "Been a while since I saw Norberta," he said. "I didn't hear that she's a mum."

"I could get Uncle Charlie to write to you about her," Albus said. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind, seeing as you're the one that let him smuggle her out to Norway. He'll be heading north in the spring to see her, so he can tell you then." Charlie Weasley joked a lot about being migratory, since he would head up to Norway in the warmer months to keep an eye on Norberta and to visit some Russian dragons. Most of his time was still spent in Romania, but he had been traveling a lot, even to Australia, which apparently had the world's most dangerous dragons.

"Tha'd be nice," Hagrid said. "If Marissa's ever int'rested in dragons, I'll send her to see him."

"He's been talking about how he wants to have a couple of extra hands," Albus said. "I bet he wouldn't mind having her around."

Before he could leave, Albus had to accept a few rock cakes, which he tucked into his pockets. He wasn't sure what he would do with them – perhaps save them for spring and try feeding them to the squid – but he thanked Hagrid and apologized for having filled up on breakfast. He waved good-bye as he set out, but he had only made it part of the way back to the castle when he saw Scorpius sitting with his back against a white tomb by the side of the lake. Albus picked his way toward him, and Scorpius didn't look up, not even when Albus sat next to him on the ice.

After a bit of silence, Albus asked, "Want a rock cake?"


	21. Dumbledore's Tomb

Scorpius woke from dreams of other worlds, and for a long while he lay curled under his blankets, one arm draped over his pillow and the other stretched in front of him. Everyone else was already awake, and he was glad it was Saturday. He didn't much feel like going to any class, not even Charms.

Albus had been right; he did need a break. He was determined not to set foot in the library all day, even if it meant he had to hang around outside until dinner. After all, there wasn't much else for him to do. He didn't have many friends aside from Albus and Ruby, and he'd done his homework whenever his mind felt too full of vampires or whatever it was Ruby was having them study that day. Some of it had probably crept into his homework, but his professors said nothing about it. Some were impressed by his high marks, but Scorpius thought that a few were getting tired of his rivalry with Rose. He didn't blame them. There were times when he found it tiresome as well.

Not that he was willing to give it up. That would never happen. These first few years were only practice for when the real battle would start.

For some reason, thinking about his rivalry as a battle cheered him up, and he got dressed and headed to the Great Hall. It was a lot easier to find it now than it had been at the start of the year, and he barely had to think about the way there. Before he knew it, he was sitting down and finishing off the toast and marmalade just before the food magically vanished.

On the way out, he passed Rose in the hall. She smiled and waved to him, and he glanced away. They hadn't been studying together, and as far as he knew, she hadn't been helping Ruby look up things to help her figure out the monster in Avina's kingdom. He only saw her in Herbology classes now, and he couldn't quite bring himself to look her in the eye. He still felt guilty over what had happened to Albus, and he knew that even if they didn't get along, he still wanted her to respect him. As he hurried away, she gave him a strange look before heading up a flight of stairs.

Once he was outside, Scorpius felt instantly relieved. It was as though the castle – or perhaps just Rose's look – had laid something heavy on his shoulders, but once he was out under the bright blue sky, the weight was gone and he could stand free. There likely wouldn't be any snow today, but it was so cold that the snow already left wasn't going to melt. It wasn't the sort of snow that would be good for making snowballs or anything else fun, and the melting and refreezing had turned it into a sickly, dirty gray. Still, it crunched satisfyingly under his feet as he wandered around the grounds.

Scorpius tried to wander everywhere. He went to the greenhouses and walked in slow circles around them, peering inside at the plants. Everything looked cozy in there, and he spotted Professor Longbottom tending to something with tips on the ends of its leaves that looked disturbingly like claws. The professor caught sight of him through the window and smiled, and Scorpius waved before hurrying away. He was Rose's favorite professor, Scorpius knew, and he didn't want to be around anything that would make him think of Rose, or Albus, or even Ruby. He certainly didn't want to think about Avina, not after what Albus had told them.

The lake, of course, reminded him of all of them, so Scorpius headed around the other side of the castle. Shouts coming from the Quidditch pitch told him that someone was practicing, and when he slipped up into the stands, he saw flashes of red shooting around. They'd probably think it was strange for a Slytherin to be watching their practice, and in any case, James was out there, so Scorpius headed away.

The forest was definitely out of the question. Scorpius didn't know what might be lurking there, but he'd heard enough horror stories to know that he wanted to stay far away. People whispered about centaurs who would shoot anyone who entered, and werewolves, and giant spiders that ate people. He didn't know which of the three scared him the most, only that he wanted to avoid all of them. He did skirt the edge of the forest, even going beneath one of the trees on the edge, but the inside was too empty for him to go much further. The bare branches of the trees scraped against the sky, and the only colors he could see were gray and black, aside from the occasional evergreen, but even those had leaves so dark they could hardly be counted as green.

Scorpius wandered until his legs ached, thinking of nothing much in particular, and when he stopped, he was by the side of the lake again. This time, however, there was a white tomb on the shore, and instead of heading back to the castle to get some lunch, he walked around it and brushed off the top. His fingers hit a brass nameplate, and he bent closer to read it.

_Albus Dumbledore  
1881-1997  
Transfiguration Professor  
Headmaster  
A Good Man_

None of the students at Hogwarts were old enough to remember Dumbledore, but Scorpius had heard him mentioned by adults, almost always in reverent tones. He hadn't known that his first name was Albus, though, the same as his friend, or that he was buried by the lake. He must have been a good man indeed to be buried on Hogwarts grounds instead of in a cemetery somewhere.

Scorpius sat by the tomb, not sure if he was being too irreverent by doing so. The cold almost instantly started soaking through his clothes, but he didn't much care. He was still weary, but there was a sense that he ought to be doing something. He just wished he knew what he could do. The only thing he could think of was to study, and when he tried to come up with something else, nothing came to mind. Studying had been just about all he did. There wasn't time to play Exploding Snap or learn a good technique for Gobstones. He hadn't gone on late night raids to the kitchens, or even snuck out of his dormitory except to try to break into the library. Scorpius leaned his head back against the cold stone and wondered if he had become boring.

He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't notice Albus approach him and sit down until a small hand held out a little pastry. "Want a rock cake?"

Scorpius looked at the pastry in confusion. It looked like a scone that no one had bothered trying to shape, with raisins sticking out of it and a slight golden-brown color on the edges. "Why's it called a rock cake?" he asked, taking it from Albus's hand. It felt dense, but no more so than a scone that had been made with heavy flour.

"Because biting into one is like biting a rock," Albus said with a grin.

"I'm not very hungry," Scorpius said, passing it back to him.

"Want to see if they'll break through the ice on the lake?" Albus asked, shifting his weight so he could get to his feet easily.

"Sure."

The lake still reminded Scorpius of the day Albus had vanished, but it wasn't as bad as going to it alone, and if Albus wasn't bothered, then Scorpius decided that he wouldn't be, either. They took turns throwing the rock cakes, and most of Albus's broke through the layer of ice and sent up a little spray of water, while most of Scorpius's just scudded across the surface, sometimes leaving a crack behind them.

"I was thinking about saving them until spring, so I could feed them to the squid, but I thought you needed something to do," Albus said once the last cake was gone. They walked along the shoreline, clambering over the parts where the snow had made the ground even rougher than normal. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Scorpius said. "I've just been thinking."

"About what?"

"Am I boring?"

"No," Albus said at once. "You're my friend, and I think you're great."

"But all I ever do is study," Scorpius said. "Do you think I'd be more interesting if I got out of the library more often?"

"We're out of the library right now, and you're plenty interesting," Albus said. The edge of the forest brushed against the edge of the lake, and they walked forward more cautiously, though they didn't turn back. "Besides, the tricks you do in Professor Baumhauer's class are the most interesting things I've ever seen, aside from some of the stuff he does."

Scorpius's cheeks grew warm, and he thought about the impressed gasps he sometimes heard from his classmates whenever he tried a particularly good piece of magic. Just last week, he had shown off with a spell they wouldn't learn until the end of their second year, and though he hadn't gotten it perfectly, Professor Baumhauer had given him extra credit on that night's homework. Not even Sally Vane had complained.

"Besides," Albus said, "it's kind of fun to be part of a rivalry."

"Even if it's against your cousin?"

"Especially then. Rose and I were pretty inseparable when we were younger, but now I get a chance to be someone else." Albus was grinning, and he looked over his shoulder. They had come out of the bit of forest, and it didn't look quite as threatening as it had before. It was still a bit unnerving, but when they turned, Scorpius wasn't as nervous about going back through it. "Do you want to get some lunch? I bet the house-elves have made something better than rock cakes."

As they passed beneath the trees, Scorpius asked, "Do you know who's in that tomb out there?"

"I'm not sure," Albus said. "Probably someone pretty important to the school."

"He had the same name as you," Scorpius said.

Albus's eyes grew wide. "That's Albus Dumbledore's tomb?"

Scorpius nodded. "Were you named after him?"

"Him and Severus Snape," Albus said. "My dad said those two were the bravest men he'd ever known, though I haven't heard quite as many good things about Snape as I have about Dumbledore." Albus hopped over a root, and a puff of snow went up around his boots. "Are you named after anyone?"

"I don't think so," Scorpius said. "I think my name's just a normal wizarding one."

"I'll have to tell my dad I found Dumbledore's tomb," Albus said. "He'll probably be interested in that."

"Was he all right with you getting into Slytherin?" Scorpius asked. He couldn't remember if he'd found out or not.

"Oh, yeah," Albus said. "Uncle Ron made fun of me a little, but that's just what uncles do. James is the only one who's been giving me a hard time. Everyone else was proud of me."

"How large is your family?" Scorpius asked.

"I've never bothered to count," Albus said. "I've got a lot of aunts and uncles, and a lot of cousins, and there are a lot of friends who come over for holidays or just to visit. Sometimes I have to share a room with James when too many people stay over at our place. What about you?"

"It's just me and my parents," Scorpius said. "I've got an Aunt Daphne, but we don't hear from her much, and it's the same with my grandparents."

"Come over for the holidays sometime," Albus said. "I bet my parents wouldn't mind."

He was so eager that Scorpius had to agree, and they returned to the castle.


	22. The Snake

Life continued normally for Scorpius after that, or at least as normally as it ever had been at Hogwarts. He went to his classes and did his best to pay attention to his dead professor, and to not get attacked by the more excitable plants in the greenhouse, and to impress his classmates with light shows and whatever else he could think of that would get him some extra credit. He did his best to not get trapped by moving staircases or steps that vanished, and he only got stuck in a room with an appearing and disappearing door twice. He also spent hours in the library, reading about anything and everything that Ruby thought would be useful.

His life wasn't all studying, though. While he didn't join any clubs or make lots of new friends, he did spend more time in the common room that wasn't involved with a book. A few of the older students thought he was kind of cute, being a bookish little first year, and though Scorpius wasn't sure he liked how much they treated him like a cross between a pet and a little brother, it was nice to be noticed for something other than his name. They did call him "Malfoy", but they said it affectionately, and he didn't mind all that much once he got used to it.

The rivalry with Rose even got kind of back to normal. He was gradually able to look her in the eye again, and she seemed happy about that, though he couldn't quite get why. Maybe she was just glad to have a rival who would actually look at her instead of staring at something else. For some reason, she liked teasing him through glances and grins almost as much as she did beating him in nearly every class. Scorpius didn't mind all that much, and he tried grinning back at her, though it didn't work as well as he had hoped. In the end, he decided he liked being stoic better, and only met her gaze for a little bit before going back to his work.

In the middle of April, Apollo brought him a package.

Scorpius was used to getting mail, whether from his owl or his family's. He was even used to getting the occasional care package with treats or a new pair of winter boots. What he wasn't used to was people gawking at his bird and scrambling to get away as he landed on the table. When Scorpius saw what Apollo had brought him, he understood.

His owl had a large dead snake clasped in its talons.

Apollo deposited the snake before Scorpius, gave a little screech, and helped itself to a kipper before flying off, probably back to the Owlery. For a while, all Scorpius could do was stare. Apollo had never brought him any dead animals before, and he didn't know why he had started with a snake. It wasn't even the sort of snake he would have seen any other day. It was nearly as long as he was, and thick enough that he was amazed Apollo had been able to carry it. Its scales shone like glass, and he was almost afraid to touch it in case it might break. Colors shimmered across it, though only faintly, and it wasn't until Scorpius nudged the snake with his spoon that he was sure it was really dead.

Albus was the first to return to the table. "What is that?" he asked, sitting down and returning to his toast as though there was very little unusual in there being a dead snake on the table. One by one, the other Slytherins returned, and a few reached out to tentatively touch the snake.

"I'm not sure," Scorpius said. "I don't really know what to do with it."

Albus leaned close to him and whispered, "It reminds me a bit of Essemeulia."

Scorpius frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure," Albus said. "It's just this feeling I get when I look at it. Don't you notice that there's something different?"

Now that Albus had brought it up, Scorpius did have to notice that there was something rather strange about the snake. It looked like an ordinary snake, and it felt like an ordinary snake, but there was something about it that made it extraordinary, something that made it seem otherworldly. He couldn't quite place what that thing was; it felt almost like it was working on a sense he didn't even know he had. "What do you think we should do?"

"I don't know," Albus said. "It's your snake."

Scorpius pulled the snake off the table. It wasn't quite as heavy as he had feared, but it would be bulky. "Let's show it to Ruby. She'll know what to do."

* * *

They didn't run into Ruby until the afternoon, and so the snake had to lie on Scorpius's bed all day. When he and Albus ran down to get it, Scorpius feared that it would have started to rot, but it didn't smell any different than it had that morning. They picked it up and hurried out, toward the lake.

"How long does it take a snake to rot?" Scorpius asked as they went up a flight of stairs. A passing sixth year gave them a strange look but said nothing.

"I'm not sure," Albus said. "Ruby hasn't had us studying snakes yet."

Once they had found a nice shady spot, Albus volunteered to get Ruby while Scorpius waited with the snake. It was easily one of the strangest things he had ever done. The day was beautiful, and the sun was making little reflections on the water, just like on the snake's scales. People passing by him gave him strange looks and sometimes little smiles, and he pulled his legs up to his chest, waiting for Albus to bring Ruby out. He didn't want to be known as the boy who carried around a dead snake; it was bad enough to be the Malfoy boy.

Ruby and Albus came back at a run, and from what Scorpius could tell, Ruby was asking why they weren't going to be in the library that day. Albus was only shaking his head, and Scorpius supposed he was saying that she would understand later. Scorpius wasn't sure she would – he wasn't sure any of them would ever understand what was going on – but as they drew near he waved, and Ruby waved back.

"So what's going on?" Ruby asked when she reached the shade. "I thought we were going to do some more work on transdimensional stuff today."

"I got a snake in the mail," Scorpius said.

Ruby stared at him for a moment, but then her eyes widened in understanding. "So that's what that was. I was wondering about that. I thought one of the seventh years had gotten it for a prank." She sat down and looked over the snake. "I suppose this means there won't be any dead eagles or lions showing up."

"That's probably for the best," Albus said, to which Scorpius nodded. Ruby only shrugged.

"So, why did you get a snake?" Ruby asked.

"I'm not sure," Scorpius said. "My owl just brought it over. There wasn't a note or anything attached, so I thought I'd wait for you to take a look at it."

Ruby peered at the snake for about a minute before opening its mouth. The snake had fangs that shone like marble, and as Ruby reached inside its mouth, Albus gasped and said, "Be careful!"

"Don't worry," Ruby said. "I'm not going to get bitten by a dead snake."

"Can't it still use its venom even after it's dead?" Albus asked.

Ruby shrugged. "I actually don't know very much about snakes. I'll try to find out after I finish this." She reached deeper, leaning so far forward that her shoulder was nearly inside the snake's mouth. Scorpius and Albus were both leaning forward as well, watching with bated breath. Scorpius could hardly blink, and Albus gasped again when Ruby let out a little cry.

"What's wrong?" Scorpius asked, reaching for his wand. He wasn't sure what spell would be useful right then, but there had to be something he could do.

"Did it bite you?" Albus asked, his voice nearly a squeak.

"I think I found something!" Ruby said, and she pulled her arm out of the snake's mouth, holding a rolled up and slightly stained piece of paper. As soon as the paper was out, the snake faded away to nothing, leaving only a slight indentation in the grass. Scorpius was even more confused than before, but Ruby unrolled the paper, and both he and Albus sat close to her to read over her shoulders.

_Friends,_

_I'm alive, but you've probably guessed that by now, if this message reached you. I sent it on a sort of animal that can travel well through dimensions – nearly as well as humans. I won't bother telling you the name, since you likely wouldn't be able to pronounce it anyway and I haven't got much time._

_There are more people alive here than I'd thought, and we're going to do our best to free our world. I'm not going to run and hide any longer. I'm going to fight, as I should have from the first. This is my world, and I'm going to defend it, no matter what it takes._

_I'm afraid I don't know how you can write me back, but I'll have someone look into it. As soon as there's a way, I want to find out if Albus made it safely back. If he's there, give him my affection and tell him I wish to see him soon._

_Avina_

Albus was blushing by the end of the letter, but neither Scorpius nor Ruby teased him. Scorpius was too glad that Avina really was alive, and Ruby was looking over the letter again.

"Nothing," she said finally setting it down. "Not a single word about what kind of thing it is or how to beat it."

"Maybe she didn't think we'd need to know," Albus said. "I mean, she probably thinks that she can fight it herself, or at least with the help of the people she's found, and I bet she can." He smiled proudly and picked up the letter. "I'm glad she's alive."

"What are we going to do now?" Scorpius asked. "Are we still going to try to figure out what that thing is?"

"I don't know," Ruby said. "I'm still curious, but the urgency's gone. I might do some research, but you two don't have to help me if you don't want to."

"We want to help," Albus said, but his heart wasn't quite in it. Scorpius didn't bother to agree or disagree. He did want to spend time with Ruby, but the thought of being locked away in the library for the rest of the year to look up something they might not even have to know was the dullest thing he could imagine. There had to be something, anything else they could do instead of just being in the library with a bunch of old books.

He was going to have time for himself. That was something so hard to imagine that he wasn't even sure what he would do with it. He had managed to find time for homework and school stuff even with all the other things he had been doing, and now that there would be time for him to do something he would enjoy, he wasn't at all sure what he would do. Maybe they could see a Quidditch game, or swim in the lake, or explore the castle some more. The possibilities felt endless.

It was Albus who came up with the solution. Getting to his feet, he said, "James has an old Gobstones set lying around somewhere. Do either of you two want to learn how to play?"


	23. Going Home

The rest of the term went by in a rush. Now that the three of them didn't have to worry about researching transdimensional travel, hours of free time suddenly appeared where there had been none before. Scorpius had thought that he wouldn't know what to do with himself, but it turned out there was plenty to do. On sunny days, they went out onto the grounds to explore, though most of that exploration took place by the lake. When it rained, they would wander through the castle, or sometimes Ruby would join them in their common room to see if she could see the squid. It was an elusive creature, but the older Slytherins swore they had seen it swimming past sometimes, and that they would just have to keep their eyes open for it.

"Do you think they're telling the truth?" Ruby asked one afternoon as a small school of fish swam by the window and vanished.

"Why wouldn't they be?" Scorpius had a book open on his lap – exams were coming up, and they had been studying some of the things from the start of the year they might have forgotten – but it had been a few minutes since he had turned a page.

"It's something that older kids do," Albus said. "They tell you to wait for something that won't really happen just so they can keep you busy." He didn't sound bitter at all about it, although that sounded like a terrible thing to do to someone. "Don't you have any older brothers or sisters?"

Scorpius shook his head, and the other two shared a knowing look. They returned to their studying after that, although it was easy to get through. Compared to what they had been reading for most of the year, studying for their classes was so simple it quickly became boring, and they had to come up with ways to keep themselves amused so they could keep studying. Most of the time, they used games. If someone lost a round of Exploding Snap or Gobstones, they had to be quizzed by the other two until they missed a question, which they would then have to study until they could give the right answer. Albus snuck some brooms out of a cupboard, and they had races, and the loser would have to be quizzed. Most of the time, Scorpius lost the broom races, but since he never missed a question, Albus and Ruby decided that the second best should be quizzed instead.

"It's not my fault you picked something I'm no good at," Scorpius said as they walked back to the broom cupboard.

"We had to do something with skill," Albus said, putting away their brooms. He had won again and offered to put everything away because of it. "Exploding Snap's a game of chance, and none of us are really good at Gobstones. Besides, I've been getting antsy just sitting around all day."

Scorpius had felt the same, and he knew Ruby had as well. There was something about the blue sky and warm air that seemed to call to him to leave the castle and get outside. Once he was there, he didn't always know what to do, and sometimes that sent him right back in, but the call was always there, prickling under his skin and whispering about action. He'd been having trouble focusing in classes, but then, so had everyone else, and some of the professors had noticed. Professor Binns, of course, droned on as always, but Professor Longbottom would sometimes take his class out to the lake to look at a particularly interesting plant. A few of the students would stare out at the water and not pay attention, but his enthusiasm kept most of them interested. Professor Baumhauer did Professor Longbottom one better and relocated his classes to the tree by the lake, where everyone practiced tossing blades of grass in the air and making them float, or trying to get leaves to change color. Scorpius's leaf was the most impressive of his class. He had turned one bright blue, and the color was still there days later. The only one that came close to surpassing it was an orange one, but that was starting to turn green around the edges.

"If you're tired of broom races, we could do something else," Ruby said. "How about racing on foot? We know Albus won't beat us at that." She sounded serious at first, but a smile quickly appeared on her face, and she made no attempt to hide it.

"That's because you'd be the one to win," Scorpius said. She had been tall when they first met her, and she was even taller now, though she'd said that she would likely stop growing soon.

"Height doesn't necessarily mean speed," she said as they started up to the castle, still smiling.

"You've got longer legs than both of us," Albus put in. "You don't need speed to win; you can take larger steps." He wrinkled his nose in annoyance. "That's why I stopped racing with James. I could never beat him, and we won't be able to beat you."

"Fine," Ruby said, not at all put out by the fact that she wouldn't get to race. "There's got to be something else we can do. How about different types of spells?"

Albus shook his head. "Scorpius would win every time at that one," he said, and Scorpius felt his cheeks grow warm. There was something in Albus's tone that made him feel strange about spending so much time studying and perfecting his spells instead of doing whatever it was that normal students would do.

"Maybe we could take a break from studying," Scorpius said.

Both Albus and Ruby turned to stare at him, and Scorpius wondered if it was so out of character for him to have said that. "Do you mean take a break from the games?" Ruby asked. "I'd be fine with that. They were starting to get a little boring anyway."

"Would we have to go back to the library or the common room, though?" Albus asked. "I'm tired of hanging around there all the time."

"We could take the books outside," Ruby said. "People do it all the time."

"I thought Madame Pince didn't allow that," Scorpius said.

Ruby and Albus both laughed, but Ruby's was the loudest, and she draped an arm over Scorpius's shoulder. "People break rules all the time," she said. "It's not that big a deal, really, and it's only a small rule. It isn't as though we're going to hurt anyone by doing it."

"I know," Scorpius said. "I'm just not used to breaking rules, I guess."

"Well, it's time we fix that," Ruby said. "Come on, you two. We're going to the library, and we're going to take some books outside. Maybe, if we're feeling really wicked, we'll sprinkle some lake water on them." Scorpius must have blanched, for she laughed and pulled him along to the stairs. "I was kidding," she said, adding, as they broke into a jog, "mostly."

* * *

They actually didn't get a great deal of mischief done that last month. Sure, they had taken library books and gotten a few drops of water on the corners of the pages, and sure, Albus had helped them sneak to the kitchen, but it was a very quiet month. Scorpius found it relaxing, and on catching his reflection in a mirror, he realized that he looked healthier than he had before going home for the winter holidays.

Finals came and went, and Scorpius was the best out of the Slytherins. He even did better than the first year Ravenclaws. From what he heard, the only person who had done better than him was Rose Granger-Weasley, but he found that he didn't mind all that much. He had come very close to doing as well as she had and had actually done better than her in Charms. Even though it was the only class he had bested her in, it was still a victory, and Albus sounded thrilled when Scorpius told him.

"Maybe next year you'll beat her in two classes!" he said, and Scorpius laughed.

After that, the year wound down easily. Everyone packed their things, and Scorpius and Albus shared a compartment on the train home. Ruby was probably with another friend – Rose, most likely – so they had the place to themselves. People glanced in and left them alone, but it wasn't because they didn't want to share a compartment with the Malfoy boy; it was because they had other friends to be with, and most of those groups of people were quite large.

Scorpius still felt a bit odd about how cheerful Albus was to be with him, even if they had been good friends for the whole year. "If you'd rather spend time with Ruby and Rose, it's fine," he said. "I'll be all right on my own." It was a long train ride, but he could probably amuse himself with something. There were books in his trunk he hadn't read since the beginning of the year; maybe they would interest him.

Albus shook his head. "I'm going to spend at least half the summer with Rose," he said. "I don't need to spend a few hours with her on a train. Besides, I don't know if I'll get to see you until next September. Unless you want to come visit my family?"

It sounded like it could be fun, but Scorpius shrugged. "I don't think James would like that very much."

"James isn't in charge of the house," Albus said. "Besides, there are lots of people in my family, especially when all the cousins get together. We all like to have dinner in the middle of the summer at Grandma Molly's place. I don't think they'd mind if you came by and joined us. I'm sure some of them would really like you."

"I'll try," Scorpius said. He would, too, but he wasn't sure how hard he would try. His father didn't mind that he had befriended a Potter, but it still might be strange to visit a family that his father had fought against years ago. He'd at least mention it and see if anything happened. "You'll write to me over the summer, right? I don't want to spend three months pretending I don't have any friends."

"Of course I'll write you," Albus said at once. "You'd better do the same, though. I've never really had friends outside my family until I met you and Ruby."

He'd have to write to Ruby, too, Scorpius realized. He hoped that Apollo could find her house, even if she did live with Muggles. It couldn't be too hard; people said that owls were incredibly smart, and they could find anyone as long as they knew the name.

Even though it lasted hours, the train ride still felt very short, and it wasn't long before they were in King's Cross. Scorpius and Albus managed to say a quick good-bye to each other before going out into the horde of people hurrying around the station, and Scorpius caught sight of Ruby and waved to her. She waved back, and he thought he saw her try to say something, but everyone else was talking too loudly for him to hear her.

Someone set a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up to see his father. "Ready to go home?" Draco asked, taking Scorpius's trunk.

"Yeah," Scorpius said. "I've had a really strange year."

"I had seven strange years," Draco said with a small smile. "You can tell me about this one on the way home. Your mother's in Paris until the weekend, so we'll have the house to ourselves for a few days."

"Should we do something to surprise her before she gets back?" Scorpius asked, and his father's smile grew wider.

A small breeze picked up, but Scorpius hardly cared. He was ready to go home.


	24. The Lion Rampant

_The wind knew my secrets._

_How's that for a start to a letter? I bet you were expecting something like "Dear Scorpius" or "Hey, second place", but instead you get that the wind knows my secrets. I'm always going to be one step ahead of you, and even if you beat me in Charms, you'd better be sure that I'm going to do even better next year. I hope you're ready!_

_Rose_

Scorpius folded the parchment and tucked it into the envelope again. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to keep it. When a barn owl had landed at his window, he had thought that Albus had sent him a letter, and it wasn't until he had given the owl a treat and sent it away that he saw the design on the envelope. It was a Gryffindor lion, gold and rampant and drawn quite well. He only knew two Gryffindors, but neither seemed likely to write him. Curious, he opened the letter and found the little note from Rose.

It made him smile. He hadn't expected that at all, but by the time he finished reading the note, a grin was on his face, and he sat down on his bed for a minute, just looking at the envelope. He had gotten a letter. It was even a friendly letter, for all the taunting in it, though perhaps it was that taunting that made it feel so friendly. Still grinning, he grabbed a parchment of his own and began to write.

_Rose,_

_Even if you won't do the same for me, I'll give you a proper salutation. Brief, yes, but at least it's there. I won't say any more about it, but I will say this:_

_You can't beat me._

_You may have done better than me this year, but you won't get the same again. I'll be ready for you, and I'm going to make sure that you can't beat me in any exams (except maybe Herbology, but that's the only one). I'll be ready for whatever you can give, and I just hope you're ready for me._

_Scorpius_

Writing the letter only made him smile more, and once the ink had dried, he folded it up and tucked into an envelope. On the front, he addressed it to Rose Granger-Weasley, hoping Apollo would be able to find her, and on the back, he doodled a green snake coiled among silver stars. It took a bit of work to coax Apollo down from the top of the wardrobe, but once he was perched on Scorpius's arm, Scorpius tied the letter to his leg and carried him over to the window.

"This letter's for Rose Granger-Weasley," he said. "I don't know where she lives, but you can find her, right?"

Apollo blinked at him with bright yellow eyes and gave no sign of assent or even understanding.

"The barn owl can't have gotten too far. Just follow him. Or her. I'm not really sure which one." Hoping that Apollo could figure it out, Scorpius opened the window and thrust the owl outside. After a moment of sitting on his owner's arm, Apollo took off, flying away into the late afternoon sky. With a sigh, Scorpius leaned against the window and watched his pet vanish. He wished he could somehow speed time up so that Apollo would have returned already, or so that he would have Rose's response (he hoped she would write back, so that they could have a taunting correspondence), or even so that it would be September and he could return to Hogwarts. He wanted little more than to be back at school, surrounded by books and magic and friends.

That wasn't to say that his life at home was dreadful. It was still quiet, but something about it had changed. Perhaps it was because he had gone to Hogwarts and was properly a wizard, or at least a step closer, or perhaps it was because he was a Slytherin like the rest of the family. Though his parents assured him that they would have been proud no matter what house he ended up in, he couldn't hide the fact that he was relieved to be in the family house, so that there wouldn't be a rift between them and him. It was already strange enough to think that he was friends with the son of his father's enemy.

Maybe something had changed at home. His father had always seemed distant, and though he was still as cool and unruffled as ever, Draco Malfoy seemed a different man. He was more tender toward his wife, and more affectionate toward Scorpius, and he even spoke more to the house-elves. He wasn't quite as open as Astoria was, but something about him had changed. Whenever Scorpius asked what it might be, he only got a smile as an answer and an assurance that it wasn't anything he needed to concern himself with.

Scorpius waited for nearly an hour before he saw something flying toward his house. In the dying light, it looked like an owl, and when he saw that it was definitely headed toward him, he sprang to his feet and held out his arm for it to land. The owl flew right past him, though, and he saw that it was neither Apollo nor that barn owl but a snowy. It had a letter attached to its leg, and when Scorpius opened the envelope, he saw that it was from Albus.

_Sorry I made you write so long for a letter. Everything's been really busy lately, and I haven't had much time to myself. The next one will be longer, I promise._

_I've had to unpack all my textbooks so we can pack things for the trip to the Burrow (that's Grandma Molly's house), and I never thought I would have to move so many books at once. They didn't feel nearly as heavy in my trunk as when I had to carry them up the stairs to my room. Lily (my little sister) tried to help, but she wound up sitting on the stairs reading them more often than not. She's a great kid, but she tries to know everything. I bet she'll end up a Ravenclaw._

_Sorry about the sudden new ink color. James keeps taking my ink and quills to write to his girlfriend. School's only been out for a few weeks, and he's been pining over her like she was the best thing that ever happened to him. Her name's Lujayn and she's a dancer, or at least that's what he says._

_Like I said, sorry I can't write longer, but we're spending the whole summer at the Burrow, and I'm really excited to see Uncle Charlie again. He works with dragons, and he promised to come by in July. I know it'll be a while before we get to see him, but he's probably my favorite uncle. _

_Albus_

Two letters in one day. Scorpius could hardly believe it. Hoping that Albus wouldn't get impatient for his letter – even if he was busy packing – he grabbed his quill and another piece of parchment and began to write.

_Albus,_

_Thanks for writing me! You actually weren't my first letter this summer; Rose wrote one to me just before you did. I'm not sure why she would, except that I suppose she doesn't want me to forget that we're rivals before we go back to Hogwarts. I'm not likely to forget, though; I'm going to study as much as I can over summer so I'm ready for next year. _

_I hope you have fun at the Burrow. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to visit you, since Dad only said that he'd think about it when I asked, but if I can't, then at least we'll see each other at King's Cross. I wish it could be September sooner; there isn't much for me to do over summer except for study, and that isn't as much fun to do alone. I'm thinking of asking Ruby over, but she might end up just spending time with my mother. Mom really likes Muggle mathematics, and she might end up asking Ruby about them, or trying to teach Ruby if she doesn't think she knows enough. It'll probably be the second one, since Mom's been studying since before I was born, and Ruby's just twelve._

_Have you heard from Ruby yet? I'm going to try to write her as soon as Apollo gets back, but I'm not sure whether owls can find Muggle houses. I'm not even sure Apollo can find you or Rose. I hope he can, since I don't think Dad would be very happy if I lost an owl so soon. I haven't even had him for a whole year._

_See you in September!_

_Scorpius_

He folded the parchment and tucked it into an envelope. Apollo still hadn't returned, so Scorpius left the window open and laid the letter on his nightstand. Deciding he ought to write his letter to Ruby before he forgot, he grabbed another piece of parchment and had just begun writing the first paragraph when a house-elf appeared to summon him for dinner. It refused to be ignored, so Scorpius had to put his letter aside and go down to the dining room.

The food was delicious, but his mind was still on his letters, and his distraction must have been fairly obvious to his parents. "Scorpius, are you all right?" Astoria asked. "You've hardly touched your artichokes."

"Sorry," he said, glancing up and seeing that both she and Draco had cleared their plates and were no doubt awaiting dessert. He started shoveling the vegetables into his mouth, slowing down only after the first few bites because the spices that had been used were perfect.

"You didn't answer my question," Astoria said. When Scorpius gave her a confused look, she asked again, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," he said. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You looked a bit distracted," she said. "I thought there might be something preoccupying you." She glanced away from Scorpius to Draco, but then returned her gaze to her son. "To be honest, I was a little worried, especially considering what happened over the winter holidays. Are you sure you're all right?"

"I am," he said. "Really." He saw the same worry in his father's eyes and wondered how he couldn't have noticed what his parents had been thinking. He knew he had been wrapped up in his own thoughts, but that hardly seemed like a good enough excuse now. "I'm just waiting for Apollo to get back. I sent a letter to a friend, and I didn't know how long it would take him to deliver it."

Draco gestured for a house-elf to bring in dessert. "How far away does your friend live?"

"I'm not sure." Scorpius wondered what his father would say if he knew that the letter was for Rose Granger-Weasley. Maybe if he assured him that they were only rivalry letters, he'd understand.

The dessert was quite possibly one of the sweetest Scorpius had ever tasted, and it was a good thing there were only small servings, or he might have had to send some of it back. "I'm sure Apollo will be back sometime tonight," Draco said. "There's no need to worry."

Scorpius nodded, but he wasn't quite as worried about Apollo as he had been before. As soon as he could, he excused himself and ran upstairs to work on Ruby's letter. Once there, he found that he hadn't needed to worry at all. Apollo sat in his place atop the wardrobe, preening himself. There was a disdainful look in his eye when Scorpius arrived, and he wondered whether perhaps his owl was more clever than he had given him credit for. "You won't have to carry the letter tonight," he said. "At least, not if you don't want to. It can wait until tomorrow."


	25. Draco and Astoria

On summer evenings, Astoria liked to go on walks around Malfoy Manor. Most of the time, Draco didn't accompany her, since he was either too busy with work or too exhausted from it. Tonight, though, he surprised her by the rose garden and slipped his arm through hers. At least, he had planned to surprise her. She didn't seem taken aback at all by his appearance and instead merely touched his hand gently and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"It's good to finally have you out here," she said.

"I thought it might be time we start to be a family."

"We've always been a family," she said. "You, me, Scorpius… even the house-elves."

"It's time we start to act like a family, then," he said, kissing to top of her head. There were times when he wished that Scorpius might have taken more after her than him. It was bad enough that he had to carry the name Malfoy with him everywhere he went, but to look like a copy of his father was too much.

"What brought this change on?" Astoria asked.

"Scorpius," Draco said. "He's happy. I don't think I've ever seen him as cheerful as I did tonight. I know he may not have looked happy, but he was. I could just tell."

As he spoke, Astoria gently steered him away from the roses and along one of the many little paths that crossed the grounds of the manor. This particular path led from the relatively simple rose garden to a much more elaborate one, which in summer became a riot of colors and scents. Draco remembered it being rather more sedate when he was a boy, but Astoria had wanted to plant things that would enchant the eye, as she put it, so he had agreed to let her put in brighter flowers. While it had been a bit jarring at first, he had to admit that it was indeed enchanting, and he loved every moment of walking through the garden. Even in autumn it was beautiful, since Astoria had planted flowers that would bloom late in the year.

"Hogwarts has changed him," Draco said. "I don't know how it did, but he's not the same boy he was before."

"He's had a chance to be a boy," Astoria said. "I'm not blaming you, love, since I'm sure it was partly my own fault, but we haven't really given him a childhood. I'm not going to say we should have sent him to a Muggle school, but maybe we should have at least gathered some of our other friends to have a sort of primary school for young wizards instead of teaching him here."

Draco laughed bitterly. "What friends?" he asked, but instantly regretted it when he saw the hurt on Astoria's face. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to put it like that."

"I know what you meant," she said gently. She didn't sound entirely cheered, and for a while, they walked on in silence. In the dim light, Draco could make out some of the albino peacocks that liked to nest on the hedges surrounding the manor. He had liked them as a boy, but tonight they made him think of ghosts, and he gently pulled Astoria toward a little arbor they had set up.

"Perhaps we should have sent him to a Muggle school," he said. "He's made friends with a Muggle-born, so it isn't as though he would have hated them at once. It might have given him a better childhood to have some friends around him."

"And to leave those friends behind as soon as he entered a world they couldn't follow?" Astoria shook her head. "I don't think we could have asked that of him."

"Children are strong," Draco said. "He would have been all right."

Astoria shook her head again. "They may be strong in some ways, but betrayal can still hurt them, and they can see almost anything as betrayal."

A memory came to Draco, so strongly that he was amazed he had nearly forgotten it, even though it had occurred over twenty years ago. He had been just a boy, no older than Scorpius, standing on the Hogwarts Express for the first time. He had offered friendship to some other boy – it had been partly a political move encouraged by his father, certainly, but he had sometimes thought that it could have become a real friendship, not like the ones he had with his various henchmen – and was spurned. The memory stung, and he wondered how much of his life could have been different if Harry Potter had made a different choice that day, or if he had said something different, been kinder somehow, less like the boy his father had wanted him to be.

"Again, I'm not blaming you, but you remember how nervous Scorpius was that we might not have been proud of him if he hadn't gotten into Slytherin." Astoria had gone on speaking, not noticing her husband's distraction, and Draco struggled to bring his thoughts back to his wife. "He was probably afraid that he would betray us somehow, and he might still be."

"We'll have to explain that it isn't that big a deal," Draco said, but his tongue felt dull, and he barely noticed the dark green leaves above their heads, or the silvery bark on the trees.

Astoria laughed, but it was a gentle laugh, with not a hint of mockery in it. "It won't be that easy," she said. "He may be eleven years old and starting school, but he's still a child. I'm not sure he would understand. I know I thought I would die right up on that stool if the Sorting Hat put me anywhere but Slytherin. Don't you remember, Draco, just how important the sorting was back then?"

He did. He remembered being so confident he would get into Slytherin that no other possibility had crossed his mind. There hadn't been much of a chance that he would go anywhere else; he had been made almost solely out of ambition back then and wouldn't have fit into any of the other houses. "How can we help him, then?"

"I'm not sure we can," Astoria said. "We may have to leave him to his own devices this time. I know it will be difficult, but he's our son, and we have to trust him."

"We have to leave him to figure things out on his own, then?" Draco couldn't shake the image of how Scorpius had looked when he had come home for the winter holidays. He had been paler than normal, almost gaunt, and he had looked so fragile that Draco had thought a strong word would snap him in two. He looked healthier now, even if he had been rather distracted at dinner, but there was always the chance that he would go back somehow to the way he had been.

"If he wants our help, he'll come to us," Astoria said, though Draco wasn't sure how much she believed herself. "Otherwise, he'll figure things out on his own. He's nearly a teenager, after all. They prefer to do things that way." She smiled a little, and Draco forced himself to smile as well.

"A little rebellion might be good for him," he mused. "If I'd rebelled a little, then maybe –" His voice broke off, and he looked away, nearly turning to walk on a different path and leave Astoria where she was. She didn't ask what might have happened if he had rebelled a little – she knew as well as he did the things he regretted – but she did hold tightly to his arm until he stopped trying to pull away so strongly.

"Are you all right now?" she asked after they had stood there for a few minutes.

"I don't know," he said. "I'm not sure that I'll ever really be all right." All around him, the trees were green and silver, but when he turned to her, he saw brown and orange, and the colors were refreshing. "How do you manage to love me, Astoria?"

"It isn't easy," she began, and he tried to interrupt with an apology, but she set her fingers against his lips, silencing him. "It isn't easy," she said again, "but I think there's a light inside you. It's faint, sometimes, but that isn't because you aren't a good man. It's because you try to block it out, and even though I think I understand why, I can't possibly begin to comprehend it. I won't beg you to explain yourself to me, but if you ever want to try, I'll listen."

Draco wasn't sure what he could say to that. His first impulse was to turn away again, but there was such honesty and openness in her eyes that he couldn't. Instead, he kissed her fingertips and took her hand in his, holding it tightly. "If there's a light in me, it's because you put it there," he said softly.

Astoria shook her head. "I may have made it easier for you to see, but it was always there."

He kissed her gently on the lips, and she rose to her tiptoes to return the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. It reminded him of the kisses they would share when they were much younger, and she was pursuing him. He hadn't understood why she loved him so deeply, but on those moments when she would fling her arms around him and light up some fire inside him that he hadn't imagined could ever exist, he didn't care why. He only cared that she did and hoped she never stopped.

When the kiss was over, they didn't part as breathlessly as they had when they were younger, and she wasn't blushing as much as she did when she had been twenty. Her smile was still the same, and when she traced her finger behind his ear and down his jawline, he felt the same shiver run down his back as he had the first time she had done that.

"I still think you're my light," Draco said, and Astoria laughed. It was a quiet laugh, the sort of laugh that could fit well into a night, and he wanted to kiss her again, right there.

"Perhaps I've brought more light into your life than there was before, but I'm not all of it," she said with a smile, leading him out of the arbor and onto a large expanse of grass. Draco remembered flying above it as a boy, when he'd been allowed to use his father's broom to practice before going to Hogwarts. Perhaps he ought to get Scorpius his own broom. He'd be old enough to try out for the team next year, and he had said in one of his letters that he might.

"What are we going to do?" he asked as they walked down a gentle slope, holding each other so they wouldn't slip and tumble to the bottom. It might have been fun when they were younger, but they were adults now, and parents of a quickly growing boy.

"About what?" Astoria asked. She had led him from the path, and he thought that they might be headed for a little gazebo set far enough away from the manor to be out of sight. They'd had picnics there, among other things, and he had fond memories of that place.

"About anything," he said. "About life."

"That's easy," Astoria said.

"Really?"

"Oh, yes. It's the easiest answer of all." She stopped walking and kissed him again. It was slower this time, and they lingered close together for a while before pulling apart. Under the stars, she looked more beautiful than ever, and he wondered again how he had been lucky enough to marry such a wonderful woman, and lucky enough to keep her by his side. "We're going to live."

* * *

**A/N: **Here it is, the end of Book One! A big thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed, and I hope you enjoy the next book just as much. I'm not sure when I'll start posting chapters, but it should be soonish, depending on how much homework I've got going on. If you have any questions/comments/complaints/predictions, please feel free to let me know. I love hearing from my readers.


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